ItsGemmaEdwards

I’ve been a bit quiet on the dating front recently, mostly because I’ve been dating the same guy for four weeks now (catbum) which is all a bit disappointing for you guys to read about isn’t it! No drama, nothing embarrassing or funny, just good dates with a nice guy that I like spending time with and getting to know. Snore. We had pancake day with my sister and her boyfriend on Tuesday which was lovely (they both approve him, if you know me in real life and you know my sisters boyfriend then that’s a pretty ‘dece’ compliment as he’d say…) He also just so happens to have stopped watching The Walking Dead at the same time as I did…so if that’s not fate, I don’t know what is. Finally I can catch up! We’ve generally just been eating way too much food with a sprinkling of Pokehunts to walk it off. I’ve dragged him (okay, he was pretty willing) round Southampton to all my favourite food places because, yes, I am food obsessed…Partly the food itself, partly just being too lazy to cook for myself. We’ve seen quite a lot of each other which I actually really like, I think when you like someone you make the effort to do that and it’s nice to make the most of it.

Rounding up the types of things I’ve seen on Tinder, I thought I would write a mini series on ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.‘ It’s mostly bad but there are some redeeming factors which I’ll outline in this post. There are lots of funny profiles (whether they mean to be, or not), I’ve made some friends and there are definitely some good guys on there. Obviously, depending on what you’re after, your options are going to be very different. The stereotype that Tinder is used purely for hook-ups is pretty valid in my browsing experience but having not used it in that way myself is probably what makes it look ‘worse’ to me, it wasn’t exactly suitable for my wants. However, I know lots of stable/long-term couples that have met on Tinder, including those that are married or about to be! So it’s definitely not to be snubbed completely, if you are careful and make sure to use it in the way you want to then I think you are going to find someone suitable at one stage or another.

On analysing the photos on Tinder, there are more decent ones than I had thought there would be to be honest. I was expecting a barrage of unattractive, strange old men or something but there’s plenty of attractive, smiley people with friends and interesting hobbies etc but usually if I think a profile is a good one, it will generally be down to the bio. Here are some of my favourites:

These mostly just have in common the fact that they’re short, of a similar tone and a little injection of humour. Probably the most likely form of bio to get me interested – but then Catbums wasn’t quite like that and neither were many others I matched with so, we all make exceptions. I like bios that make me laugh/exhale through my nose a little, something that would make me type ‘lol’. This brings me onto my love of a little helping of self-deprecating humour:

Some things I noticed I liked/didn’t like were pretty specific to my personal situation – one guy says in his profile ‘I want kids, if you don’t then swipe left‘ and whilst that’s a bit serious for Tinder/first point of contact I think it does get more important as you get older. Not being on the same page with someone as important as that is pretty much the reason my last relationship ended so this stands out to me and it does make me think good on him really, he doesn’t want to waste his or anyones elses time and as something that’s clearly very important to him I’m sure he’ll find a woman that feels the same way! A little bit of honesty can mean a lot. I’m 26, I guess I’m not 100% that I don’t want kids but I’ve never really had the feeling that I do want kids. I don’t really want to want kids and I’m definitely not considering it any time soon, getting into a relationship now with someone that actively really wants kids soon enough that they’re choosing dates based off their feelings towards it would be very silly for me! Another one makes me laugh though as a ‘casual user of the DENNIS system‘…if you don’t know, don’t worry.

During my time on Tinder, I’ll never forget coming across the best profile photos I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t usually post photos of people on my blog for sake of anonymity but this guy definitely deserves some credit and kinda seems like someone who was after some attention, so without further ado…

Although, he did have some serious competition when I came across Conkers profile today:

What a handsome chap. I’ll be following this up with the bad and the ugly sides of Tinder but thought for today we could settle for a little bit of positivity! I’d love to hear your stories about Tinder – if anyone has had a positive outcome, please feel free to let me know in the comments 🙂 With Conker leading the way, I’ll wrap up this post with the memory of dogs I will never pet and cats that I will never get scratched by:

Since I swiped my current Tinder squeeze due to the cat/cats butthole in his photo, I have to admit that I’m also partial to some cute kitties, too. For very different reasons though, whilst these dogs are super handsome and clearly being used as a ‘look-how-friendly-I-am’ tool, cats mostly just ruin photos, look creepy in the background, or make you look creepy.

There’s way more than just cats and dogs on Tinder, too. Aside from the drugged out exotic animals at dodgy tourist destinations, there’s lots of other pets. I’ve seen goats, a man covered in birds and…I don’t even know what this majestic, monkey-like critter is: