As its title suggests, the recent Vanity Fair article "Tinder and the Dawn of the 'Dating Apocalypse'" didn't take the most optimistic view of Tinder's influence on modern dating. As you can imagine, this did not make the people over at everyone's favorite dating app very happy, and they let the world know it. Tinder has fought back with over 31 (very defensive) tweets in hour. According to Cosmopolitan, "Tinder used its official Twitter account to call out both the magazine and the journalist, offering retorts to several statements and claims made in the original article". Unfortunately, instead of taking a reasonable, measured defense of their app, the deluge of tweets read as a little over the top.
Tinder has acknowledged this in a statement, saying, “we were saddened to see that the article didn’t touch upon the positive experiences that the majority of our users encounter daily ... Our intention was to highlight the many statistics and amazing stories that are sometimes left unpublished, and, in doing so, we overreacted." It definitely seemed like a "the lady doth protest too much" scenario. If you don't want to trawl through the tweets yourself, here's what you need to know:
1. They Really Stressed How Meaningful The Connections Are
As opposed to the "hookup culture" portrayed in the article, Tinder wanted to emphasize the long-term relationships that have come out of their app. It's a fair point -- while most people know a lot of hookups that happen through Tinder, they also know lots of long-term relationships that have come from swiping right.
2. They Went After The Publication And The Author
One of the reasons the whole thing seems a little over the top, besides just the sheer number of ranty responses, is that it calls out Vanity Fair and the author, Nancy Jo Sales, personally. That may be why NBC thought that "Tinder's Twitter feed read like a letter from a scorned lover," rather than a professional retort.
3. Tinder Claims The "30 Percent Of Users Are Married Stat" Is BS
One of the main points of contention was the often-quoted statistic that 30 percent of Tinder users are actually married. According to the company, this is "preposterous." It obviously hit a nerve with the Tinder employee.
4. They Pointed Out How Dating Apps Have Served As An Equalizer
One of the key benefits of dating apps, and online dating in general, is that it creates an atmosphere in which everyone can make the first move or say hello. Tinder points out that there are a lot of people using the app for a lot of different reasons, but there's an equality to the social dynamic (you've both said yes to each other), and either party can make the first move knowing that.
5. They Sought To Minimize The Anonymity of Tinder Connections
Contrary to the picture the article paints of a lot of anonymous swiping and sex, Tinder's tweets pointed out that through Facebook authentication, shared connections, profiles, and Instagram integration, there's an ability to create a more personal experience. I mean, a lot of people don't use these options (Hello, Mr. One Gym Selfie and nothing else), but you certainly can. I think it highlights the basic conflict in the Vanity Fair / Tinder spat, which is that Vanity Fair overly focused on one use of Tinder and one faction of Tinder users, while the Tinder tweets looked a little crazy by pretending that those people and such behavior is almost non-existent, which everyone who's gotten the Saturday night drunken dick-pic-athon knows isn't the case. There are a lot of things you use the app for, and there are a lot of different people on it. It is what it is. That's it.
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