But Tinder is more than a dating app — it is a metaphor for speeding up and mechanizing decision-making, turning us into binary creatures who can bypass underlying questions and emotions and instead go with whatever feels really good in the moment. Its mechanisms perfect the similar either-or options other social media platforms have offered, the yes/no, like/ignore, retweet/pass dichotomy that leaves no room for maybe. Within Tinder, we sort each other into ones and zeroes, flattening away any human complexity, becoming efficient robots. Where a best friend might engage with you about the true motivations behind your choices, Tinder serves as Robot Bestie, there to make complex decisions seem easy, shorn of emotional entanglements.

mk:

I have never had a need for Tinder, but I imagine it could have been useful to get me out of a rut from time to time. I don't buy that Tinder is turning people into binary thinkers. It used to be that your dating pool was small. A small dating pool has complications. Now the dating pool is larger, and that probably has its own set of complications. Tinder tries to make it less complicated.

I'm am tiring of articles written in the vein of 'look what technology is making us do'. I want to see more articles questioning how we use our technology. Are we using our technology well? How can we use it better? How can we improve upon what we have to create what we want?

Of course, we are products of our environment, but a little discussed truth is that our environment is the product of a subset of us. You can always walk right off the field.

posted 3014 days ago