Try A Little Tinder-ness

I lived alone when I first came to Red Henna City in 2009. It was a lonely time for me. Almost all of my colleagues were based outside the city, and my only company during night time at the staff quarters were stray cats. 

Nice to play with, but not much contribution in terms of quality conversations.

I was weeks away from becoming a bonafide crazy cat lady when Mrs. Plain Jane, similarly single at that time, jokingly suggested that I join an online dating site. Through such sites, I have met plenty of men, just virtually if they live gazillion miles away, or outside for movie and dinner dates if they live nearby. Some of the good men became my friends until this very day. There were also not-so-nice men, but the worst of the lot were those with fake profiles and really bad grammar.

Four years of on-and-off dating profiles in various sites have passed, and in line with embracing technology, I have decided to try a popular dating app on my Samsung SII Mini:

Tinder

There are many articles on Tinder that you can find online:

• Buzzfeed has one on the how-tos of Tinderland. 
• Mashable has a simple guide on how to score dates.
• This one contains a glossary of useful Tinder terms.

This dummy-proof matchmaking app requires minimal use of your motor skills (swipe left if the profile is bleh, swipe right if you want to contact the hottie) and maximum superficiality. 

I've only been there a week but this video below probably best describes what the experience felt like:

The good thing about Tinder is that you will only get to contact your matches, so your chances of being bombarded by messages from people you have no yen for are super low. There are also so many ridiculously good-looking men on the app. 

The bad thing is, you might not get many matches (or any matches at all) if you or your photos are unflattering. 

I should mention that I am not pretty by conventional or advertising-industry standards. I am a plus-size woman, who wears glasses, a bright smile and a loud personality. I also have jiggly bits that are heading towards Australia as we speak. *curses gravity and fried dinners*

Despite all that, I did upload a few flattering photos of myself in my profile and they show me doing the things that I love: being goofy, having a drink with friends, and going on photography escapades. 

In case you're wondering how well (or how bad) I am doing on Tinder so far, here are my stats as of today:

Number of matches: 

FIVE

Number of matches who responded to my texts: 

TWO

Number of matches who blocked me after realising that they've swiped me to the right by mistake: 

ONE

Number of matches who responded and tentatively agreed to meet up for coffee, only to disappear from my list of matches one day before: 

ONE (DOUCHEBAG) 


Would I recommend the app to anyone? 

• Yes, if you're a tall and leggy chick looking forward to dates with uber-hot males.
• Yes, if you look like me but still want to drool over some sizzling eye-candy.
• No, if you're looking for meaningful connections with real people who know there is more than meets the eye. 

If you're keen to take the minefield app for a test drive, you can download it for free from your Apple App Store or Google Play. 

As for me, I think I prefer date nights with my celluloid boyfriend. 

Yum.

The Geek Goddess

P/S: All pics sourced from Google. Duh.