Love me, Tinder

I remember the first time I was exposed to online dating. I was about seven years old when “You’ve Got Mail” first came out.

The idea seemed so idiotic to me. Spoiler alert. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks formed a cyber relationship that resulted in them falling in love.

The movie is more significant than it might seem. It was released in 1998, during a transitional period, when computers were first starting to become popular, and googling was just becoming a verb.

If this couple could find love via technology in 1998, then you would think there is hope for the rest of us in 2013.

We don’t need to resort to AOL to communicate with prospective lovers when we have love sitting the palm of our hands — literally.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with the new and improved version of online dating: Tinder.

Tinder is a mobile application that has recently blown up in popularity. It has the ability to find out your location and then allows users to find “matches” based on where you live.

In another Ryan and Hanks classic, “Sleepless in Seattle,” they find each other, even from different cities. What if your true love isn’t within walking distance?

Tinder calls the app “A fun way to break the ice.”

After downloading it to see what all of the fuss is about, I felt the company should come up with a new tagline.

“A superficial way to contract lice (or any number of communicable diseases)” would be a lot more fitting.

Tinder is solely based on two things: your location and your level of attractiveness. If someone doesn’t like the way you look, they can make you disappear with the touch of a button.

The application is supposed to make finding love easy. Your smartphone already goes with you everywhere, which means you could be dating throughout the day.

As if that wasn’t easy enough, men don’t even need to work up the courage to ask a women out, they can just sit back and let the machine do it for them.

Our generation relies heavily on their smartphones. They trust it will give them proper directions, weather and news updates Now they are relying on their smartphones to play Cupid.

Tinder isn’t the only mobile dating application. Locals and Singles Around Me and Crazy Blind Date have recently surfaced.

According to Nielsen, in November 2012, there were 13.7 million singles looking for love on their smartphones compared to 5.8 million in November 2011.

While mobile applications geared toward dating are booming, online dating is seeing a decline. ComScore says 22.9 million singles created online dating profiles in January 2012, compared to 29.3 million in 2011.

Online dating websites, such as eHarmony and JDate, go beyond looks. They allow singles to look at each other’s profiles and find similar interests.

When I was using the application, I found the only common interest I shared with my matches was that we both attend IU.

Social media has forever changed the way we interact with the opposite sex. Now, all signs of romance are basically thrown out the window. All it takes is a cell phone and a hot Facebook profile picture and you’ve got yourself a match.

­— azaslow@indiana.edu