A while back we wrote about how the two-year-old dating app had made one-billion matches in just 18 months. It’s no secret Tinder is the hottest dating app out there and apparently it's very effective in hooking up users. But how often do those hookups actually last longer than a date? Is Tinder really that effective in bringing people sustainable happiness?
When we stumbled upon an article in Elle declaring the newest Tinder trend “marriage,” we had to wonder. How could “the straight persons' Grindr” possibly be yielding life-long results?
According to the article, Tinder the app is “responsible for more than 1,000 engagements. Couples from various age groups, careers, parts of the country, and religions who have met 'Tindering'.” Huh. The users it’s really working for are just as surprised as you might be.
"I had no intentions of finding the love of my life. I did, however, have some hope that maybe I'd meet someone for a date here or there," Dave Falcone, a 21 year old student told Elle. He'd never used an online dating service before.
He swiped upon Lindsay DeFilippis, sent her a clever and unconventional message and their first date went so well Dave couldn't wait to see her again, so he showed up at her house the next afternoon with her favourite drink from Starbucks. The pair is getting hitched next year.
These two lovebirds are by no means a one off. Tinder marriage stories are popping up all over the interwebs.
Sarah Rajani and Ryan Bills “certainly never expected to find a serious relationship this way. But they were wrong. After they became a match – meaning both parties had given the other their stamp of approval – they began chatting through the app, which eventually gave way to a phone number exchange and a first date … Fast forward a few months to July 2013, when Bills popped the question to Rajani in the car.”
Then there’s Lori Levine, who, before getting engaged to her Tinder date, "could not have taken Tinder less seriously. I was not at all marriage-minded."
… and Jen Heder, who said she "never, ever, ever thought I would meet the person I was going to marry on Tinder. You obviously go on Tinder being hopeful and thinking maybe something could happen from it, but in my idea of how things might go, I didn't ever think this would happen. But I'm very glad I did (get Tinder)."
What exactly are these users doing to locate the loves of their lives on a dating app? Of all these tales there seems to be one common denominator: none of them expected, or even particularly wanted, to find a spouse. Tinder may prove the old adage “falling in love happens when you least expect it.” You look for a one-night hookup, you get a groom. You hope for your date to simply not be a lunatic, and they turn out to be your life partner.
By all means, defy the law of attraction and put your mind to living purely in the moment, rather than being preoccupied with what you ultimately may hoping for years down the road: then you can let down your expectations, quit overthinking, and truly enjoy someones company for what it is. Simple.
A pretty sound dating strategy, when you think about it.
… Just don't think about it too much.
