Tinder: Free Advertising Space Really.

"We met on Tinder." Who really wants to shamelessly mouth these words when telling the world how they met their significant other?

Tinder gets a lot of flack for supposedly being a "sick or swim" online dating pool, brimming with weirdo’s, loners, mullets and desperados alike. I'd like to set the record straight.

I have Tinder. In fact, I've even been on a few mildly entertaining Tinder dates, and yes, I returned home without any scratches and my pride relatively intact. 

I started using the app in July last year - it was winter, Cape Town was playing a dirty weather game and I had zero desire to leave my bed on a Friday night. Best option? An online date, which saved me the trouble of putting my best face on, and still allowed me to lay in bed with a bag of Chuckles. 

I swiped my way through CT and gave zero fucks about my matches. Tinder was a shameless Turn Up on the dance floor, and I had no intention of meeting up with anyone. My profile practically reads as an award-winning advert - an amalgamation of perfect lighting, a Valencia filter and carefully crafted words. 

You're conveying your personal brand to a stream of hungry singles, attempting to incite some spark of interest and pretending to be relatively sane in the process. 

Tinder has gifted us with the opportunity to put our prettiest and fakest faces forward. You're adventurous, always up for a laugh, hate commitment and absolutely love trying out new things. Or, at least that's what the advert says. 

The truth is that we Tinder all the damn time. We swipe right, swipe left and wonder whether that guy across the street's fetish for floral shirts labels him an eccentric. Yes. Swipe right. We're scrolling through the streets, presenting ourselves as some sort of perfection, and hoping that your weird vibes with someone else's weird. Whether it be lust, love or a jig on the dance floor - we're almost always looking for a new way to satisfy those ardent urges. 

So, I say Tinder. Tinder your heart all the way to new conversations, new people and possible new reasons to swear off dating. We're expert first-daters, who have mastered the art of selling ourselves online, and do so with impeccable filters and witty one-liners. 

Tinder may be somewhat of a carnal impetus, seen through a distilled version of reality, but it’s definitely entertaining on a cold, rainy night. Certainly beats cuddling yourself.