After 10 years of swiping right, what have we gained from Tinder? – Sydney Morning Herald

This month marks the 10-year anniversary of Tinder; a decade filled with swiping right, curating the perfect bio, and posing proudly with dead fish. It is pretty remarkable that, in such a considerably short period of time, online dating apps have completely revolutionised the world of romance.

According to data from Statista, 3.2 million Australians were using dating apps in 2021 such as Tinder, Grindr, Bumble and Hinge, making it the most common way to find a partner. Over a quarter of these daters stated they were using these platforms to find a long-term partner, with the largest demographic aged between 25 to 34.

Last year 3.2 million Australians were using dating apps such as Tinder, Grindr, Bumble and Hinge.Credit:iStock

Long gone are the days of casually meeting in a pub and feeling a spark across the room dating is now a matter of carefully selected profile pictures and setting your preferred radius to locate the love of your life.

We have a tendency to mourn the ye ol days of rom-com style romance, regarding dating apps as a colder method to find love and romance. Swiping through profiles and forming judgments within a couple of seconds can, understandably, feel a little extreme.

However, this perception disregards some of the important advantages that have been gained with the advent of these apps, namely in terms of the control and new sense of empowerment.

Romance is no longer left to the hands of fate and convenience. It does not depend upon meeting your soulmate in secondary school, or bumping into them at the bookstore. Dating apps have opened up worlds of romantic possibilities outside our personal bubbles.

Dating apps have opened up worlds of romantic possibilities outside our personal bubbles.Credit:Shutterstock

I met my partner online at the start of 2020, only weeks before the world as we knew it turned topsy-turvy. If it wasnt for dating apps, we wouldnt have met. Its as simple as that. We had no mutual friends, worked in entirely dissimilar careers, and he would much rather be kicking a soccer ball around while I would be at the theatre. There is no way our two circles would have ever collided.

Two and a half years after swiping onto his profile, we are in the process of unpacking the boxes of our first house together.

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After 10 years of swiping right, what have we gained from Tinder? - Sydney Morning Herald