With articles like this, this, and especially this, it’s easy to see why the thought of joining Tinder made me a little weary. To me, Tinder took out all the fun parts about dating: meeting people by accident or through other friends; that first spark or connection you get when meeting someone in person; the cute awkward small talk at the beginning. Tinder is more analytical. It’s all swiping to the right on the people you find attractive, while not knowing their personalities. It only tells you who else liked you, to get rid of that awkward rejection that comes with dating. With Tinder, the pivotal point of it seemed to be to hook up with other people. It’s an easy way to potentially get laid. By simply swiping on a photo, a very easy task, you can either end up hooking up with the person, or moving on and finding another. Little work for the potential of a big payout.

To make my little experiment easier, I swiped on both people I found attractive, and the ones who seemed most likely to match with me. In the week of having this app, I matched with a surprising amount of people. About 95 per cent of the people I’d swiped matched with me. And yet, few conversations were started. Like that first article, I did notice something. While there are people who use this app religiously and can get what they want from it, people don’t often speak.

Those who did though: wow. I got every kind of message, from asking about TV shows (as a TV nerd, I happily replied) to messages asking me for photos, or even a place to meet. Some were witty, and of course, others were down right creepy. One guy didn’t even message me. He simply put up a photo, which read “Who’s DTF?”

After a few days, I was introduced to the Super Like. Basically, every member has the chance to “super like” someone, and it actually notifies the person they liked about it. I accepted it, and out of everyone, he may have been the neediest. Since it appeared that I’d reciprocated, he thought it was basically a sure thing. Our conversation went from talking about favourite foods, to him asking me to eat said food off of his body. Needless to say, I unmatched him quite quickly.

Tinder results: deleted the app as soon as I was able to, and spent the evening watching rom-coms to remind myself that not every man is creepy.

kelly spence

A 20-something who reads too many romance novels, has a soft spot for wine and anything comfortable, and has decided to blog about her experiences with creepy people on the internet. Hopefully, nothing too traumatizing will happen.

Facebook - OkCupid profile (created for the experiment)