So. I have this friend who feels like her early 40s single life has hit rock bottom. Why does she believe this? Not because her dates comprise men with the looks of Sheldon Cooper, the intelligence of Joey from Friends and the relationship longevity of John Mayer.
No. She thinks she has bottomed out because she is trawling for love on RSVP.
But I have tremendous news. It’s on a par with the glad tidings of comfort and joy that we celebrate at Christmas (and who doesn’t love a festive free pass for unlimited alcoholic beverage intake and a day-long calorific binge, punctuated by naps?)
It’s a short message. It’s going to be ineptly expressed. It’s scientifically and statistically unproven, but I am here to tell her that I have executed an experiment that proves that she has not in fact hit the true dumpster-diving low of online dating.
My dear friend, you have not hit rock bottom. Why?
Because you are not yet on Tinder.
I can’t discount the fact that Tinder News linked to one of my previous posts,
which makes this one the equivalent of:
- Kicking Zuckerberg in the head in the playground then hoping Facebook ads will make me millions
- Holding out on Steve Jobs until the 4s in 2012 and then going all i
- Dissing James Packer , and therefore never getting even an entry level job in his media emprire.
But I do believe firmly in there being something a teensy bit more involved in finding true love than playing a version of ‘Snap’ online.
If RSVP is the equivalent of a fairly harmless one-too-many Sunday afternoon Sauv Blancs or a dabble into the lightest of recreational drug habits, Tinder is the moment that you look sideways at crystal meth and think that ‘heyyy…… that sparkly stuff ain’t all bad’
Why? There are many perils my friend.
One – its entirely about photos, not words.
I get the ‘picture tells a thousand words’, but I’d like at least, MAYBE, the 25 words or less that it takes to win a supermarket cat food competition in order to snag me. Tinder makes this entirely optional. In fact, in your haste to sign up, you can just throw in any old selection from your facebook pics and need not say a word about yourself.
So instead of scanning a written profile for your top 5 danger words? You’ve got nothing.
You have, instead, a hastily, app-generated concoction of photos.
What will this mean?
In many of these photos, you’ll be unable to discern who the chap of choice actually is. Is he that hot guy in the middle of the three? Or one of the two very average blokes serving as bookends? Although slightly more likely to be successful than Tatts, it’s still not the kind of odds that would have you dashing to the TAB.
Two – he’s local
If you don’t pay due attention, your Tinder settings mean you sign away your location rights as blithely as your Friday night check-in at Ponyfish Island. So anyone you swipe in the affirmative knows the approximate location of your abode with all the potential menace of that regrettable fling that is now the subject of an intervention order.
So if you haven’t taken pains to only post on Tinder your Masquerade ball pics or the brunette moment you had in July last year, you may very well be recognised at the local Safeway.
Three – There’s no ‘I take that back’ button
The tinder universe is a minefield, just waiting for a rookie mistake,
You have to be on your guard and have military-sniper-like concentration to avoid pulling the trigger prematurely on the Heckler and Koch and SWIPING RIGHT ON THE WRONG GUY.
If you do this, please understand that if you fire without due consideration, there is no going back.
I now understand, that if your focus was momentarily distracted by a Sunday afternoon re-play of The Blacklist, or a lunch where carbohydrates were outweighed by Cab Sauv that your Tinder hotlist now comprises of a guy:
- in full Gene Simmons Kiss makeup
- wearing a beanie with bear ears
- who has no visual identity and has chosen to portray himself as a cute Whippet
If you do this, be aware that the Tinder gods give you no ‘Undo’ button to allow you to STEP AWAY from the consequences of your inattention. Gene Simmonds guy is now going to pursue you to the ends of the earth.
At first glance, there is no unfriend button on Tinder
Four – Shared Friends
In some ways this might be good, in that the guy where you squint your eyes, look sideways and take into consideration the cuteness of his whippet makes you think that he’s worth consideriing…then heyyyyy… he knows someone you know!
Instantly there is an avenue where you can validate his single status, his lack-of-stalker-ism and his level of prior baggage.
Alas, this is only useful if your friend in common is someone with whom you are in recent contact as opposed to someone you might have shared a West Coast Cooler in the 80s whose opinion was only valid when it came to the social validity of white-ankle-boots in high school.
But there’s upside………….
But hey, there is always an upside! You can revert to semi-content-rich RSVP, or the attraction-algorithmically charged e-Harmony at any time. And if you are feeling down about yourself?
Just swipe LEFT at will and plaster a big fat NOPE on all of them until you feel better. You aren’t at rock bottom if you are dispensing rejection at will…..
If you are taking your online dating a little more seriously than this blog, check out this website for fabulously simple online dating advice.
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