Relationships

Science Says We All Use Tinder For The Same Reason, And It’s Not To Date Or Hook Up

by Candice Jalili

My friend has been talking to a guy on Tinder for FOUR MONTHS and has no intention of ever meeting up with him.

In fact, she just called me yesterday to say he finally asked if he could take her on a date, and she was totally repulsed.

Yep, you read that correctly.

Studio Firma

A guy she's been enjoying talking to for the past FOUR MONTHS finally asked her on a date, and she was not at all interested.

I wanted to judge her, but I honestly can't. When I was single, I used to do the same thing. I would log on to Tinder, swipe on a bunch of hot guys, make some casual, flirty small talk and never actually meet up with any of them.

Apparently, we aren't the only ones doing this.

A new study looked into how often people actually meet up with their Tinder matches.

In their study of over 3,800 millennials, aged 18 to 22, LenEdu (a consumer financing company) found that 72 percent of them are using Tinder.

But how many of them are actually meeting up with their matches?

LendEdu

This is pretty mind-boggling, right?!

Over 70 percent of the people on the dating app have never even bothered to go on a date with a match.

So why do we even bother using Tinder?

If we aren't going on there to actually find dates, then why the eff are we even bothering with Tinder at all?

The same study asked over 9,000 millennials why they used Tinder, and what they found is actually pretty surprising:

LendEdu

The large majority of us aren't on the app to find love or a quick hookup. In fact, only about 4 percent of those surveyed said they used Tinder to look for a relationship.

Instead, most of us (about 44 percent) like to go on Tinder for a good, old-fashioned confidence boost.

Most of us (about 44 percent) like to go on Tinder for a good, old-fashioned confidence boost.

I mean, it makes sense, right?

You open Tinder on a particularly shitty day, match with a bunch of hot dudes you wouldn't otherwise have the confidence to strike up a conversation with, get showered with compliments and attention, and then, you log right out when you're back to feeling like the confident alpha woman you are.

Plus, it's easy to get bored and move on to someone else when you have so many faces to choose from, according to Jeffrey Hall, an associate professor of communications at the University of Kansas.

Looks like Tinder is nothing more than the modern-day, tech version of your mom telling you those girls were just mean to you because they're "jealous."

OK, that analogy might have been a little bit of a stretch, but you get the picture here. Tinder is just a big, old ego booster.

Citations: Most young people don't use Tinder for sex or love — here's why they really use it (MarketWatch), IS TINDER A MATCH FOR MILLENNIALS? (LendEdu)