Tinder is far more than just a hookup app, and to say otherwise is tantamount to treason. Or at least that's what we glean from the company's Twitter rampage last night after it read Vanity Fair's September feature article, "Tinder and the Dawn of the 'Dating Apocalypse.'"
The article espouses the idea that apps, particularly Tinder, are dramatically changing hookup culture — and that those changes could be having negative effects on twentysomethings' relationships.
“It’s like ordering Seamless,” an investment banker says of Tinder in the Vanity Fair piece. “But you’re ordering a person.”
The Twitter situation began when the story's author, Nancy Jo Sales, tweeted a survey showing that 30% of Tinder's users are actually married; Tinder tweeted a link to its own data that said otherwise, and invited Sales to have a "factual" conversation. Over the course of roughly 30 tweets, Tinder frantically, emotionally, and bizarrely countered the article's claims (which were sourced from numerous interviews, research articles, and experts — just not from Tinder itself). Tinder's overarching point: "It's about meeting new people for all kinds of reasons. Travel, dating, relationships, friends, and a shit ton of marriages."
Got it.
Tinder also tweeted that it has many users in China and North Korea, even though Facebook is banned there — a puzzling statement considering Tinder had also tweeted that everyone on Tinder is authenticated through Facebook, and the app shows users friends they have in common. Are these Asian users employing fake Facebook logins, or using VPN to get around the Facebook ban?
For the full, melodramatic rampage, head over to Tinder's Twitter profile.
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