It's 2016. I'm single.
For the first time in four years.
For the first time since I was 18 years old.
Deep breaths, Jordan...
I was always of the common opinion that Tinder was a load of old rubbish. When I was at university, whenever a couple would say that they met on the dating app, I would scoff. It wouldn't last, I thought to myself. It's not like meeting in real life.
Of course, at the time I was in a relationship. I had graduated from an all girls secondary school and headed straight into one, before heading off to uni. What the dating world had become was completely beyond me.
By the time I was single again, my opinion of Tinder had kind of shifted. I was kind of excited to swipe through the endless conveyor belt of men, swiping right to the ones that caught my eye and swiping no to the others. I created an account a couple of months after my break up, set up a profile and got swiping.
I soon figured out that Tinder was more of a selection process than I had realised. I had my fair share of matches. Within a few minutes, a message would pop into my inbox.
"Hey Jordan! How are you? I see you like Disney. What's your favourite movie?"
That seemed to be the gist of the opening lines.
We would chat back and forth, sometimes for hours and sometimes for days, until eventually the conversation died out. I was seriously confused. Why would someone spend their time talking to me, only to not even bother asking me out on an actual date?
I soon discovered a few key facts when it came to Tinder. Swipe yes to the men with kind faces, interesting photos and actual details in their bio. Swipe no to men with selfies with their shirts off, photos with the lads on holiday and club pics. Every time I gave one of the second group a chance, they were a waste of time. I had to focus on the kind of man I could truly imagine myself with.
One evening, I was sitting up in bed and a man popped up. He caught my eye and I swiped right. We matched. I can't quite remember the first message, but it went something like this;
"Hi Jordan! I see you like Disney. What's your favourite movie?"
Nothing too original (he's reading this, but he knows I'm right). We chatted for a bit. Again, we just kept talking. He told me he liked Disney too and I thought he was winding me up. We seemed to get on really well and I was so confused as to why he wasn't actually asking me out. Eventually, I just broke.
"Are we going to keep chatting or are you ever actually going to ask me out on a date?"
And he did.
We met, we fell in love. The rest is history.
I was a convert.
I honestly think Tinder does get a bad rep and I can see why. There are hundreds of time wasters, losers and just general muppets on there who have nothing better to do than mess you around. But there are also people who genuinely want to meet someone.
It's so hard to meet people nowadays. Unless it's through a friend or work or a hobby (and even with those 3 groups the number of single men is quite limited), it's a nightmare trying to meet the one. I've never been a person to go out to night clubs or bars, so my choice of men was literally non-existent.
My boyfriend and I had no mutual friends, we didn't even live in the same county. But this ridiculous app that someone invented allowed us to find each other, when in reality we probably never would have otherwise. How incredible is that?
So yeah, Tinder has it's downsides, but I think as long as you are hopeful and selective with who you swipe, it's the best thing in the world. It brought Mr Right straight to my phone, so what more can I ask for? x
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