The history of online dating begins at the mid 1990s when Internet had first gradually reached the working places. The use of personal computers with internet connection then crawled into homes as well and suddenly you could not imagine the everyday life without internet. The global pioneer in online dating services might be Match.com, which began 1995, and spread all over the world. In Finland among the first and still operating service is probably Deitti.net, as a part of City magazine, which started operating a year or two later than Match.com. In the side of Deitti.net, Suomi 24, which began at 1998, is also one of the oldest and still popular Finnish online dating sites.
Many online dating sites launched a variety of mobile applications in the beginning of 2000s, but they were all alongside of the online page, not the main thing. That was an international evolution in online dating field. For example Deitti.net launched the mobile application at 2003 at the same time with OkCupid and Zoosk. In the early 2000s WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) was used but that is no longer supported, at least not in Finland. Mobile applications had the novelty of adding photos and that was new in the field. In that time, at least in Finland, the majority of online daters hesitated about adding their photos into their profiles. Was that Tinder already? No, because the problem of mobile dating services was that they did not function so well in the mobile. They were slow and connection was unstable. The easiest and most pleasant way was still to operate on computer than with the mobile.
Social media took place in a high rise of Facebook in 2007. That was also a year I joined Facebook myself. From the beginning of Facebook there have been all kinds of applications around, some I clearly see influential to Tinder as well. And what is better site for testing new ideas? Right. In fact, I remember Are you interested application which already had the idea of getting the profile photos of unknown people in front of you and then you had to choose if you were interested or not. Actually Are you interested is still operating service which claims to be integrated to Facebook, IPhone, Android and to web pages. At first I was really confused with this application on Facebook. ME ranking unknown people with yes/no??? But this application accustomed us to the idea that you could do just that.
Another thing that has risen with social media, especially which Facebook and Instagram have brought, is the strong visuality in online communication. Selfies are the perfect example of this. Especially among the young female there has been common for a some time now taking selfies and loading them online to get self-esteem uplifting praise from the peer about the looks, new hair cut or new dress. Sander De Ridder and Sofie Van Bauwel wrote an article about it (Commenting on pictures: Teens negotiating gender and sexualities on social networking sites. Sexualities 2013 16: 565-586). Part of this involves nothing more than to get approval and feeling accepted, which is very important to teens. Another view is to see narcissistic appearance with certain posing styles like making duckface. But these posing styles get worn and old quite fast.
Tinder was established in 2012, at the same time as TheCompleteMe. These two represent the new generation in online dating. The novelty is that they are combine many social media accounts from different sources. They are both technologically developed using geographical user positioning and easy logging with Facebook account. I find TheCompleteMe much more interesting because in addition to Facebook it collected information from LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Foursquare and thereby had more possibilities to analyze the best match among the users. Tinder uses Facebook profile and spatial data and seeks and puts together people close to each other, pre-strangers to each other. TheCompleteMe did not succeed as expected. But Tinder did. Why was it? The users´ fear of letting the application get inside too many different social media accounts? Tinder being more simple and fast to use? Or just better managed advertising?
Tinder has a game-like structure; you have to react to incoming stimuli fast and make quick decisions based on minimal information. The same speed you have in other social media today; there is the eternal news flow running in both Facebook and Twitter. The media literacy today includes the ability to follow such a flow and make quick decisions about whether to like the post or not, whether to read more about it or let it pass, whether to stop following the certain source or keep ordering the notifications. Game-like-structure makes Tinder also addictive experience. When sweeping yes or no when seeing a profile picture of Tinder user, it brings the feeling of power. And the power feels good. Also the dating situation is totally different comparing it to traditional online dating service site. You don´t have to wait for the possible answers to the mailbox for days but you can do the immediate date to the nearest cafeteria, because you are both in the same neighborhood anyway.
The visual first impression is very important in Tinder. And it means also the quick first impression. It really differs comparing that the “old-fashioned” way on online dating service sites, where purpose is to explore the profile, get to know the person, read the profile text which could be an outcome of a very long thinking and writing. The way of ranking a person yes or no based on the appearance might feel very superficial and rude. Is it possible to even look someone for a serious relationship or is Tinder-date more like for impulsive fun and casual dating? But surely, you can build up a love story from any kind of first meeting. That´s only human.
Game-like-structure and the speed of the game might affect to users in the way that they don´t pile so much expectations for Tinder as a match maker. It might feel like low-threshold way of meeting new people. You might reveal so much personal information on traditional online dating site; Tinder does not require the same kind of input. Possible rejection or the fact that the new contact does not wanna meet you in the end might not feel that bad because of that.
I do not have any statistics on Tinder users. Actually I´m not even doing any research on them because I´m more interested in traditional online dating profiles. But I would expect it to be popular among young urban people, at least at first. Those usually are the trendsetters in these kinds of new things. Time shows if Tinder spreads outside cites. Online dating sites have been there for almost 20 years. I am sure they feel like safer solution for many. There has been suspicions during the years but also many positive experiences and success stories.
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