I’m a Christian. Should I have a Tinder Account?

Oh, the Social Media Era… We live in the Times of the Likes. Thousands of persons rule their identity by the quantity of the likes and shares they got. Computers, smartphones, tablets and other smart-gear rule our daily basis, compiling data about what we like, what we hate, what we share, what we do. If you ask me, this is looking like Skynet by the second.

Love and romance are not foreign from technology either. Thanks to the Internet we are closer than ever. Couples in a long-distance relationship can get in touch in every moment, thanks to a Skype or Whatsapp video call. If you are single, you can get to know people, thanks to apps like E-Harmony, Match.com, (ChristianMingle for the Christians), etc. If you are a naughty one, you can even have some “free hookups” via Internet. Pornography passed from print and pulp to VR. Technology always has “something” to offer to people who is looking for their “soul-mate”, or just looking for fun.

Now, enter Tinder.

Tinder is a pretty little app which presents you with people from your surroundings, which you can Like according to your own preferences; you can swipe left, if you didn’t like the person, or you can swipe right if you liked the person. If the person you swiped right, swipes right your profile too: “It’s a Match!” Now you can get to talk and to know each other… Or that’s what they say.

I’m gonna be honest with you guys: Last night, I gave it a try. Yes! I opened my own Tinder account! (I confess I got bored) But thanks to that experience, I guess I can say something about it today:

I created my profile, and the first thing they asked me was to set up who I want to look at (Women, of course). Then, they asked me to select the distance range from where I was (I picked like, 30 km.) Then, I picked the age range of the women I wanted to look at (I picked from 22-32. What? I like them oldies, too.) I setup my profile (Put right away I was a Christian. Put also that I’m completely mental), and I started swiping left and right.

I found every kind of girls: black, white, rich, poor, chic, urban, professionals, students, unemployed and chapeadoras too. I found dominicans, haitians, venezuelans. I found a lot of girls who fitted into my personal physical standards, others than don’t, and some who despite not being “my type” really got my attention. I also read just few profiles. By the way, I found only ONE girl who identified herself as a Christian. I saw an excessive use of the flower crown filter (For the love of God, women: stop).

After I discovered that I finished my right-swipes, I stopped using it and went to sleep. After I put my head on the pillow, I started thinking about these things:

What the heck was that thing with the right and left swipe? Is knowing a person is a contest of popularity now? Am I even thinking about their personalities, their likes and dislikes, in order to reject a person? What’s the criteria I’m using to swipe left, else, what’s my criteria for rejecting to know a person? Her face? Her picture poses? Her education? Her cleavage? These are nonsense reasons in order to get closer to a person. These are things that will fade away completely with time and only character will prevail over all these things. So does that means that I’m a product too? Am I being judged by how I look, how “interesting” I could be in my profile? Is anybody looking on my profile thinking about who the hell am I, in reality?

Besides: How do I know these girls are close to Christ? Like I said, only one called a public confession on her profile. Guess what: I swiped left. See the nonsense? I focused just in the physical, in the posed life, in the appearance.

I didn’t even wait for a match. I got up at midnight, and deleted my account and the app from my phone.

I know I didn’t get the complete experience of Tinder. But I don’t need to experience what happens afterward: you get a match, you get into a naughty message banter, you agree to see each other, and then anything can happen. But the core is the same: Tinder get people together based on just their body choices, not their souls.  Tinder helps people to get the body they want to be satisfied with. Tinder helps people to get their own expectations fulfilled.

Let’s be honest: everybody wants to be with a person they feel physically comfortable with. But sometimes it doesn’t work that way. Sometimes you get close to a person because of their personality, their heart, their manners. And even thou that person doesn’t look like a hottie, attractive choice, you are happy with your choice.

When Paul defined love he never mentioned a physical aspect. When John wrote about love, he never wrote about how good their pictures have to be in order to be swiped right. The identity of love is greater and lighter than the one we want to subdue ourselves. When we focus on just to choose those persons by using our eyes instead the wisdom God provides, we trap ourselves in a prison made of false expectations and regret.

I’m not saying that having Tinder is a sin. But be cautious of your motivations of why you using the app, and what type of person you are looking for. If you are looking for something and someone significant, I recommend not to use it, at all. Go and visit other churches, or just get some balls and talk to that girl you like. Or in better fashion, pray and wait for God’s deliverance.

Let’s remember we are called to not to be like the world, not to follow their standards:

14 I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. (John 17:14, NLT)

If we follow this premise, we are called to be like Jesus at the time of pursuing a person too. Jesus didn’t get to swipe left or right in order to save us. He did it because He loved us because of who we are. Let’s do that too.