Tinder can be a warzone for college students.
The app was originally designed to connect compatible single people with similar interests, but it quickly became a place for people looking for a hookup or one-night stand. It’s the most popular dating app in the U.S. according to the Pew Research Center, and is widely used among UB students.
Students hesitantly shared their bizarre dating and hookup stories with The Spectrum, ranging from direct messages to in-person dates.
One student recounted the time they matched with someone who lived in the same residence hall. In the early hours of the morning, they decided to meet up in person.
The two wasted no time getting to know each other — and ended up having intercourse in the common room kitchen.
“We knew each other, but we used Tinder as the medium to [meet up],” they said.
Tinder is widely known as a hookup app, and that’s why one sophomore said she downloaded the app in the first place.
“I wasn’t in the best mental state when I downloaded it, so I liked the satisfaction of guys swiping right on me,” she said. “It made me feel like I was succeeding as a woman, but also a little objectified.”
But her experience took an unexpected turn when she met the man who would become her boyfriend. She said her friends were surprised when they found out the couple had met on a dating app. She tells most people, including her parents, that they met in class, which she calls a “white lie.”
Even though Tinder is a common way for people — and especially college students — to meet, those who meet their significant other online may still face stigma.
Given the culture surrounding the app, UB students also receive plenty of unhinged direct messages from their Tinder matches.
Here’s a look at some of the wildest Tinder messages UB students have received over the past year:
Editor’s note: The Spectrum obtained these direct messages, with permission, from an Instagram account popular with UB students but not affiliated with the university. The messages have been edited for grammar.
- “Are [you] UB Learns? Because I can’t stop checking you out.”
- “If you were words on a page, you’d be fine print.”
- “This might sound weird, but the ghost of your grandma actually reached out to me.”
- “I’d fight four silverback gorillas in the back of a 7-Eleven bathroom with my hands tied behind my back blindfolded [and] the only weapon I have is a 20-pound weight strapped to my forehead just to get your Snap. Cause honestly you’re hotter than Wiz Khalifa’s trap house on a Saturday night.”
- “Roses are red, violets are fine, I’ll be the six, you’ll be the nine.”
- “I’m no weatherman but you can expect to receive up to two inches tonight.”
- “You[‘re] so fine... with that being said, may God continue to send you terrible men, until you decide to choose me. Amen.”
- “I would quite literally throw myself into a woodchipper for the slightest chance that I would get recycled and turned into your toilet paper.”
- Person 1: “What’s good?”
Person 1: “You look like my mom.”
Person 2: “.....”
Person 1: “My mom is pretty hot ngl.”
Person 2: “This seems like a psychologist’s issue.”
Person 1: “Freud’s a bitch.”
Victoria Hill is the senior news editor and can be reached at victoria.hill@ubspectrum.com
Katie Skoog is a features editor and can be reached at katie.skoog@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
