A un(Hinge)d crusade to find love?

Are dating apps the only way to find love these days? Can a few pictures and answers to questions lead to the match of your life? As a newbie to dating apps, I was curious to find out what Hinge has to offer. Also, as a single on Valentine’s Day, what more can I do than participate in dating app shenanigans?  

Hinge prides itself on the slogan, “The dating app designed to be deleted.” This slogan was created to assure users that the dating app will only be used in the short term because love is quick and easy to find through their Hinge.

On Hinge, there are standard dating app questions like, “I get along best with people who…,” “We’ll get along if…” or “I’m looking for…” Other questions rely more on the individual’s creativity, like, “Believe it or not…,” “I’m the type of texter who…,” and “One thing I’ll never do again…” 

Instead of endlessly swiping left or right, like on comparable apps, Hinge changes the pairing game by having users like one another’s photos or responses. After someone shows interest in your profile, it’s your turn to either start a conversation or reject them. What do you do if you are really interested in a person based on their profile? Each user gets one rose a week to send to someone they really fancy. 

So now you have seen the pictures and quirky responses — can you really tell if that person is the one? If that isn’t enough, Hinge encourages you to send a voice or video recording of yourself answering one of the prompts. One guy explained that his “Best travel story” was missing his flight. Yeah, I’m not sure what he meant either.

A side note: it wouldn’t be a dating app without gym and dog photos. 

During my three-day experimentation, I was surprised by strangers who responded to my profile. One debated about my distaste for blue cheese and another wondered about the location of my photos. Some commented on corny pick-up lines while others used questions to get a reply. One guy even wrote in his second language. While no particular profile caught my eye, a few looked like they had potential, while others I preferred to simply befriend. 

Before downloading a dating app, I’ve heard and believed the horror stories that came with dating apps. “I’ll never be one of those people on dating apps,” I thought to myself. But there I was, a couple of days before Valentine’s Day, judging profiles. Contrary to my imagination — though it may be too early to tell — the select users I chose to match with engaged in friendly conversations, none particularly focused on relationships or an eager need to be in a relationship. Though many might say this is natural, I could not have known with my inexperience in dating apps. 

Saying that I downloaded this app just to write a review about it would not be entirely true. Would I say I have found the formula for love with a dating app? No. The journey to finding love cannot be simply solved by a dating app algorithm alone. Maybe because it’s Hinge or maybe it’s because I just downloaded the app but my imagination of online dating as an absurd way of meeting people is not true. In actuality, my experience so far is not so horrible or scary. And who knows, perhaps this will be the start of my experiment with other dating apps — or I might get bored in one week and delete the app altogether. Nonetheless, on a holiday all about romance, my crusade continues.