No one expects Tinder to generate any kind of quality connection anymore. I [M] certainly didn’t. But I’d been divorced for two years, hadn’t had ANY intimate contact for longer, and the bar scene looked like an STD slideshow in a high school health class. So, I gave in and put that iconic fire icon on my home screen.
I knew to manage my expectations. The internet was very clear: being a guy trying to get a date on Tinder is almost as difficult as trying to become a professional athlete. So, I didn’t get my hopes up.
But soon it became a game for me. If I were a hammer, puzzles would be my nail. Learning the best Tinder-game strategy kept me going back, kept me swiping even when I never matched. For example, I knew that I couldn’t compete on looks alone. But if I showed some personality in my pics, my probability of catching a lady’s attention would bump up. Thus, my main pic was me pointing over my shoulder at Christmas decorations in a store with a” WTF” look on my face (it wasn’t even November, for godsakes!).
It turns out that was a winning strategy.