We fell in love in a hopeless place

It's going down...I'm yelling TINDER.

You've probably heard of Tinder - or you may have not...in which case I beg you to tell me where you've been hiding the last couple of months. 

For those of you pulling the 'I don't know what you're talking about right now' face, the only way I can describe it is by saying it's not a dating site...a dating app. But it's not your typical Plenty of Fish or match.com type of app. Tinder is set up through Facebook which means it can access all your contacts and their contacts and their contacts. And so on. 

Signing up to Tinder you may be horrified to learn the object of the 'game' is to judge people on their face value. YES...those values which were drilled in to us since we spoke our first word, of not judging books by their covers, are all completely irrelevant when it comes to Tinder. But it's ok. I can assure you. 

So logging on to the game you are presented with the profile photo of your first 'candidate' so to speak and you decide whether to swipe left, for a bit fat nope, or right, for a lovely 'I would'. 

Only when both you and your chosen candidate have agreed to each other - I'm still not 100% sure what were agreeing to, and it's often a pretty controversial agreement - will you show up as a match in each other's side bar. AND then you can speak and start making the agreements and conversation...but often you'll find a sarcastic and un-witty ice breaker which is enough to make you delete the app. 

You can't access anything more than the name they've chosen to display, the profile pictures they've chosen to advertise and their personally written life blurb below. More often than not, in less characters than a tweet. 9/10 times you'll find comments similar to 'because god couldn't be everywhere' or 'swipe right for the best night of your life'. Because all girls enjoy talking to an obnoxious pig...right?

What you can see however, and this is the biggest flaw in the entire thing, is the mutual friends you have. And it doesn't take Einstein to work out if I go on my mutual friend's friend list and type their first name...I'll be presented with their full name, full photo album (providing their privacy settings aren't reflective of the MI5 accounts) and life story across Facebook. And if I really wanted, I could inbox them regardless of which way either of us swiped. 

To go on a dating site at 21 is a bit like putting yourself on the shelf, but not being on Tinder is socially ignorant. It's oh so 2014. Of course, if you're in a long-term relationship it's not advisable. Or short-term, I'm not sure why I only specified it was unacceptable to go hunting talent if you were signed up to somebody on a long-term basis. I'm clearly neither. 

I guess it can be argued that Tinder is only an app, for fun, and focusing on the face value of potential victims (yes, victims) keeps it light hearted as oppose to a dating site which offers in-depth information about a person. But what I did forget to mention is that Tinder tells you exactly how many km you are away from the person at that exact time. Pretty scary stuff if you're sat on a train and it reads 'less than a km'...do look up before you swipe any which way because you could have yourself an awkward moment developing! And there's no quick escape from your carriage. 

I know a lot of people, many of whom wouldn't dare meet somebody off a 'dating site', who've met up with several people from this so called game - Tinder. Apparently the catfish thing isn't a concern, nor is the issue of being kidnapped. The fears of dating sites are absent here - is it something we should be worried about?

Tinder's got a lot to speak for itself...a sex-agreement platform (yep!), dating site, and how-shallow-are-you-game. Maybe you did find love on Tinder - you can fall in love in a hopeless place. But it is only a game for most people...

So I guess I'm on the game...(NO dad, not that type of game).