by Rebecca Jane Stokes for YourTango
It’s time for a group sob session, methinks.
When Tinder first hit the scene I swore I would never try it.
The idea of swiping to the right based solely on appearances reminded me way too much of a website with a similar premise that had tormented me in middle school.
I’m talking, of course, about Hot Or Not.
As the name might indicate, on Hot or Not you uploaded a photo of yourself and the internet decreed whether or you were “hot” or “not”.
Suffice to say the denizens of the web were not kind to a plain, overweight girl with eyebrows that doubled as ghosts.
Tinder, to me, didn’t seem that much different.
Sure, it was a dating app, not a program designed solely to cater to your vanity or destroy your ego depending on the outcome.
Here, as on other dating apps, the promise of true love was dangled like a sexy carrot to help you ford through the river of ego-bruising left swipes.
But it turns out, that I’m not JUST a jaded, damaged woman. A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of North Texas found that those who use Tinder or similar dating apps reported having lower self-esteem overall.
The study found that those who used the dating app felt greater “body dissatisfaction, body shame, body monitoring, internalization of societal expectations of beauty, comparing oneself physically to others, and reliance on media for information on appearance and attractiveness.”
And it isn’t just a female problem. Men were polled during this study as well, and those men who used Tinder had identical results to the women who also use the dating app.
Frankly, I don’t understand why there even had to be a study. Isn’t not judging a book by its cover one of the first metaphors we all learn in school?
I’m not discounting chemistry in relationships, that’s important. If it’s not there, it’s simply not there.
But conventional hotties don’t hold the premium on sexual chemistry. A person I might not be attracted to when I see there photo on an app could really get my motor running when we meet in the flesh.
Tinder doesn’t appear to be going anywhere any time soon. New users sign up for the app daily.
If every single person eventually joins the app, we’ll be such damaged insecure weirdos that ultimately the playing field will be totally even. So there’s that, I guess.
Happy dating!
This article originally appeared on YourTango: Using Tinder Will Make You MAJORLY Insecure, Says Sad Study
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