How Tinder Solved Online Dating For Women

In July, most of my single female friends weren't playing around with online dating at all. They were busy with work and friends and not looking to settle down immediately, so why put the time and effort into meticulously constructing a profile, screening dozens of messages, and going on dates with guys who look nothing like their pictures? By August, all they could talk about was Tinder. They were each meeting a couple of men a week. By September, two were exclusively dating guys they'd met via the app. My friend Jenny refers to her boyfriend as her "Tinderoni."

The app is simple: You're served a succession of photos of people who meet your age, gender, and location criteria. You swipe right if you want to meet someone, and swipe left if you don't. If you both swipe right, you can message each other. It's fast and casual -- a far cry from many dating sites' detailed filters for religion or hobbies. Tinder just pulls photos and basic data from Facebook, and in almost no time at all, users get to do exactly what we all do in social settings anyway: judge people based on appearance alone.

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