Is Tinder Changing our Cultural Habits?

Over the past decade there has been a cultural shift from traditional dating and long-term committed relationships to what is often referred to as a “hookup culture”. Social media and specifically apps like Tinder often get blamed for encouraging or even the development of this culture altogether. People argue that the online era and specifically dating apps like Tinder have killed emotional intimacy. Tinder affords the development of large networks and effortless communication with countless people through its swiping, matching and chat features. Hess and Flores discuss how “online dating applications have fundamentally changed the nature of dating (Blackwell et al., 2015) and, for college-age adults, have become intertwined with “hookup culture” (Sales, 2015), which is characterized by a carefree attitude toward engaging in frequent, casual sexual encounters with relative strangers (Armstrong et al., 2010; Currier, 2013; England et al., 2008)” (2018, p. 1086). It allows people to find others to have one-night stands and no strings attached relationships with. It also affords people with quick and everyday use for short periods of time which fits with the low commitment culture that has become so prevalent today.

Tinder further encourages the superficial values that have been critiqued with other media. People are swiping strictly based on a person’s looks without knowing anything about them. While the bio section provides their age, location and the option to provide a small amount of information, for many users this does not influence their decisions. A culture has developed around presenting one’s best self through selfies, photo editing apps and platforms like Instagram that encourage people to only post photos where they look attractive and have an amazing life. Tinder also promotes people to present their best selves and only post the most attractive photos as this is how to get the most matches. The swiping feature fits with the disposable culture in North America, as it emphasizes the idea that people are disposable similarly to electronics, clothing, and other non-living things.