Something different to music, but it’s a topic that I have been thinking about for a while. Dating apps have become so stigmatised that people generally have to lie about how they meet their partner/friend somewhere. My favourite way to tell my friends about the guy I met off Tinder is to usually tell them I have met them off Instagram. But in all honesty, what’s the difference between Tinder and Instagram?
If you’re from London and are single (or could be in a relationship, just looking for friends) you’re more than likely going to find a good handful of people who are on Tinder. The dating app has been given a pretty designated reputation though, the infamous one-date-hook-up. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve met some pretty good people off the app who have become my very good friends actually, and I know people who have had successful relationships from the app. So why are people so timid to admit they met someone off the app?
I’ve met a lot of people in this city thanks to the app, but strangely most of my relationships come from meeting people off social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. Social media platforms are different from dating apps because they give out a different purpose, but you still have hopes to meet one of your followers in a romantic way by engaging in private conversation, hence the direct message aspect of every platform. So, if people meet off Instagram to hook-up or go on a date, is it really different to Tinder? Apart from the fact that it allows you to connect with loads of different people from different professions to different parts of the world that end up being pen-pals.
The Internet is a beautiful tool, I would never regard it as anti-social. Perhaps, if you’re with a group of friends and you’re always on your phone then it may be pretty anti-social, but you’re constantly connecting with different people that you meet in person to form a better bond. With that being said, does meeting someone organically even exist anymore?
Meeting people from the Internet has become so normal for this generation that may as well be the way you meet someone ‘organically’. It’s pretty easy to go up to someone in the streets and tell them you find them attractive, but then you usually get shut down because it’s a weird interaction. I guess there’s the comfort of knowing that you’re somehow ‘safe’ when it’s an Internet interaction because you may not get attacked for ignoring someone, but it really isn’t thaaaaaat much different.
The stigmatisation of internet dating is pretty much outdated in the digital age now. Society has intertwined with the Internet that you know more about a person through what they post on their Instagram, what their interests are in order to find a partner suitable for them. Awkward small-talk at the back of a house party can still work, but probably easier and less embarrassing for you to talk to someone online and stay reserved without spilling too much information.
Let me know what you think, comment what you think about Internet dating.
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Interestingggg. I was curious what you meant by the title Tinder V Instagram but that makes sense now. I feel like it’s maybe even a little bit weirder to say you met on Instagram than it is a dating app, actually. Perhaps it gives the idea that it happened a little more organically but I feel like it’s also a little weirder because I have never met anyone that has met someone by liking photos that turns it into a date. Either way, I think, like you said, that the internet dating thing has become so normal now that… “Who cares?”, is sort of my opinion. This post makes me think about social media, as a whole, under one umbrella. When you think of it, it’s all just ways to connect people and people will use it how they want. Something that albeit even the platform creators themselves had no way of foreseeing.
Thanks for sharing!
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I haven’t used Tinder at all (not your generation), but i’m a bit amazed that you used instagram in a dating kind of a way. I love Instagram but perhaps I’ve been misunderstanding people’s friendliness! BTW this post needs a photo – just like Tinder or Insta!! But you know that. Nicola
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