5 things we learnt from Tinder Social
WORDS BY MILLIE ROBERTS
Tinder Social has officially arrived and is already hiking up our data usage. The beta feature is only available in Australia, and allows you and your mates to collectively chat up strangers. Go team!
According to their website, Tinder Social is “not group dating”. It’s just 48 hours of two or more friendly people, speaking with two or more other friendly people in a strictly platonic environment before both parties are automatically disbanded - i.e. it’s definitely group dating.
To make a group, simply tap your comrades of choice and write up a witty description. Proceed to swipe left or right on other groups as per usual.
However, Tinder’s new feature is not without flaws. Many issues have become apparent, mainly manifesting as glitches in the matrix. The same groups continually appear on your feed. Messages became chaotic under the speed of the interactions, with poor visuals to notify when a new contribution had been made. One can ever ‘super like’ groups, despite not having a paid, premium account.
Despite this, a few observations from our escapade were reached:
1. You’ll connect with your Facebook m8’s in ways you probably didn’t want to
Back in the day, you could thrive in a space where your FB friends couldn't see you on Tinder. Now they’re an active part of the experience.
Pro’s: supportive friends will act as the ultimate wingmen, while sneaky people using the app to cheat on their partners will be caught out.
Cons: you might accidentally match up with your work colleagues and have to explain that you’re not actually looking for love in all the wrong places
2. It’s a place for some good ‘ol banter
It became clear from the get-go that most groups (including my own) were only there for a good laugh. While some conversations bordered on bullying, other messages were just like-minded people banding together for good times.
A collage of all the times I got personally rekt on Tinder Social. None of it makes sense in context either.
3. You can spice up your (love) life
Want to start a polyamorous gang? Have an orgy? Click with your crush? Rekindle an old flame who just so happened to swipe right to your group as well? That’s cool – you can ‘like’ or ‘super like’ individuals after their group has expired.
The best part is, when used on campus, the location radius means that hotguy.jpg you’ve been trying to make eye contact in tutes with is sometimes less than a kilometer away from you irl.
4. Expect hyper-sexualisation. Like, more so than usual
Tinder Social reaffirmed what we already knew. Dodgy links to explicit sites. Dick jokes. Inappropriate comments directed at specific members of your group. I honestly don’t know why we expected otherwise.
5. Male bravado is more explicit within group mentality situations
There’s probably scholarly articles on this. I didn’t bother looking it up. Guys tore their mates down to appear cool and funny. There were wounded and sometimes violent responses to rejection, politically incorrect slurs and body comparisons. Lots of “;)” faces. You get the picture.
Alas, the novelty wears off after about four hours of virtual mingling. For anyone out there swayed by our findings, you can simply turn off Tinder Social through the app’s settings. Or delete Tinder altogether. Whatever suits.
Stay cybersafe, kiddos.