These days, young adults communicate not only by text but with multiple apps at the same time, such as Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, What’s App and many others on a daily basis. This has changed the game of dating. With one tap you can meet someone with whom you could spend the night or the rest of your life.
This is what happened to a nursing student at Mercer who asked to be identified only as J.
When The VOICE asked her what she thought about online dating services she started to laugh and look around, then said, “Well I met my fiancé on Tinder and then got in contact with him on Instagram.”
Tinder has become one of the most famous apps for online dating. Users make a profile including interests and can add a location or another social media account in order to find singles nearby.
On Tinder you get a catalog of the other people who “match” your interests, and if you like the person you swipe to the right and if not, to the left. Then boom, you can talk to that person that you swipe right with.
According to a survey of 30 Mercer students conducted by The VOICE, 60 percent said they have tried online dating apps. Tinder leads as the most popular, followed by OkCupid. In third place among Mercer students was Hot or Not.
J continued her fiancé story saying, “You know, I followed him on Instagram, started to like his photos and eventually he sent me a message on Instagram and later we exchanged phone numbers and started to going out for dates. He really never ask me how did I find him out on Instagram and we never talked about it until after a year of dating, I told him I saw on his Tinder profile his Instagram user and just add him. He thought I was crazy but didn’t care.”
According to datingsitesreviews.com, there are 46 million users on the Tinder app from all around the world. Tinder offers the online service in more than 20 countries.
As things change in our world, the ways we see, experience and look for love have changed radically. This is modern love, where a text with an emoji can mean many things. A simple smiling emoji with eyes in the shape of hearts or blowing a kiss can make you feel something or wonder what the other person means by sending you that specific emoji.
Yet, despite the popularity of dating apps, people are still skeptical. In the Mercer student survey 52 percent of students said that people is more fake online.
Aliya Ahmad, a radiography major, told The VOICE: “I don’t think all those apps are safe. People can have access to a lot of your information with one click and all those scary stories of girls who had been killed or kidnapped from someone they meet online. I am not taking that risk.”
Safety is a real concern. According to an article from Forbes.com in the year 2016 there were approximately 15,000 reports of “romance scams.” Still, that’s a small percent of the 46 million users on Tinder alone.
Modern love has opened a new door to the way people interact and love each other. While sending hand written love letters may be a thing of the past, that doesn’t mean that love for young adults is gone. It just has different tools and social rules.
One rule? Quit when you’re ahead.
J told The VOICE, “This past Christmas we [my fiancé and I] got engaged and I am very happy. I will never regret of what I did, but of course now my Tinder and Instagram accounts are gone.”
