Dating : Can we consider Tinder as a sociological tool?

Swiping right, left, left, left, right, right, left, right: match! Ego booster, satisfying moment. Then starts the conversation, jokes, teasing, description, sexting, whatever. But one question remains though, is the Tinder game the same all over the globe?

I used to live in 4 different countries in 6 different cities, plus I used to visit some more places as a tourist. Like many others, I used to install, delete then re-install and re-delete the app, and so on.

Tinder is a very powerful tool to connect with people out of our circle in a minute. Wherever you go it gives us the opportunity to understand the mood of people, how do they communicate here and there, the overall vibe.

There are significant differences whether you’re using Tinder in Stockholm or Malta for example. Interesting note, there’s also small gaps between two cities of a same country, as Paris and Bordeaux for example.

Key points of Tinder as a sociological tool :

• Everyone is on Tinder. All social classes are represented, all ages, all styles. Why? Because everyone wanna get laid for a night, everyone wants to love and be loved for a life, everyone is curious by meeting easily new people, everyone wants to connect for some more reasons like business (yes you can also do business on Tinder 😅).
• Like I said before, it allows us to interact with people out of our circles, which is something more and more difficult in our modern societies due to a lack of time and the fear of “others”. Mental barriers are very strong, and because of the security generated by Tinder we give a chance to people we would never meet in real life.

The fact that you can connect with all kind of people no matter what gives us a very interesting tool to understand a place.

Scandinavia is famous for its progressism. They are in advance regarding questions as LGBT+ rights and feminism for example. They also are very well focused regarding all kind of arts and design. Ecology is one their major occupation. So it won’t be rare to not engage the conversation there as a man, which is quite pleasant to be honest. You will feel those while Tinder-ing throughout your conversations.

Londoners are reputed to be the craziest people of Europe, according to me that is quite true so far. They have this culture of British pubs where the atmosphere may turn out crazy some nights. Do not also forget England is the cradle of punk movement. The traditional ones are obviously less and less present but the vibe still runs through their veins for sure.

In Malta, a tiny island lost in the middle of Mediterranean Sea, the conservatism wins. Even if it is known as an old British colony, the mentality is closest to Latin’s countries. You even can see the Sicily coast from the top north island of Malta when the weather is bright and clear, which is pretty often to be honest. The Tinder game there will also teach you people there are very religious, and the way of hooking up is more an old fashioned way centrered.

Those are obviously generalizations 🤷🏻‍♂️

You can also get all those kind of informations by reading guides, books, watching videos and so on but the strength of Tinder is the huge load of details it let us access to, if you are attentive enough, in a short amount of time. Also, it is always better to experience something than to understand it.

“I don’t want to become a serious, annoying sociologist. I try to regard sociology as a part of everyday life.”
-Agnes Varda