I have nothing against online dating, but apps like Tinder and Bumble allow us to undervalue finding a significant other. They support the hookup culture in a way which deters people from wanting anything else.
I know for some people it has been a successful way to meet someone, but I feel overall, it is a way to judge people based on a few pictures and determine if they are good enough for you.
I do not have any of these accounts and I wouldn't want one. I think it takes away from the experience of meeting someone through the people I know, the things I participate in, and the things I am interested in. It takes romance right out of the equation. Instead of "love at first sight," it becomes "love at first swipe," where your representation of yourself may differ from who you actually are.
This has led to ghosting and through an overwhelming sense of self-doubt and self-esteem. We become extremely judgmental, and we forget that people have feelings although you are making these decisions through a screen with almost no chance of ever meeting them.
I believe that if our paths don't cross, I was not meant to meet you. It is kind of like when you listen to a song and need to know what it is. You can't catch it through Shazam, but later you hear it again. This is the beauty of exploring this world. The more things I do, the more people I meet and connect with.
I do not want to be looked at by men in the way Tinder portrays women, and I do not want to be messaging any guy first to interest them when really know almost nothing about them. Whatever happened to chivalry…apparently it really is dead.
Not knowing someone can be as exciting as a blind date, but this set up isn't blind.
I get people may just want this, and that is the way the dating world, but it isn't the way I think and hope it should for good.
I do not want to hear another person say to me that "they lost their virginity to some girl on Tinder," or "yea, he wasn't who I thought he was, but I met him on Tinder, so." I do not want to see another friend upset because her boyfriend has a Tinder or Bumble account, but it isn't considered cheating, or they do not use it.
Whether we decide to see it or not, these methods can harm us more than they can help us.
Honestly, all this nonsense has got to stop. What happened to care and commitment? It almost makes me wish the clock would turn time. There would be a lot less collateral damage.
At the end of the day, I could tell you most girls would rather have a guy sweep them off their feet than swipe left or right, and it is about time people started to do that instead.
Chivalry does not take away a woman's strength. It does not make us unequal to men because all I hope to happen is for respect to be restored. There is no way to respect someone when you take all the integrity out of dating, and there is no way to have faith in ourselves if we cannot step out of our technological world to see who and what is around us.