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| Tinder Gold takes us nearer to the app’s grim endpoint: robot-style dating | Tinder Gold takes us nearer to the app’s grim endpoint: robot-style dating |
| (5 months later) | |
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| Wed 6 Sep 2017 16.06 BST | |
| Last modified on Thu 23 Nov 2017 11.09 GMT | |
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| “We know you. You live in a world where every moment counts – where speed equals success, you’re always on the go, and you can’t let anything slow you down.” | “We know you. You live in a world where every moment counts – where speed equals success, you’re always on the go, and you can’t let anything slow you down.” |
| This not a line from the new Blade Runner sequel. It’s a statement issued by Tinder explaining its new product, Tinder Gold, which launched on 29 August, becoming the highest grossing product in Apple’s App Store several days later. | This not a line from the new Blade Runner sequel. It’s a statement issued by Tinder explaining its new product, Tinder Gold, which launched on 29 August, becoming the highest grossing product in Apple’s App Store several days later. |
| This isn’t the first iteration of the dating app’s paid-for offerings: Tinder Select was launched in March, a version for “elite” users invited by peer nomination only. Back in 2015 there was also Tinder Plus. | This isn’t the first iteration of the dating app’s paid-for offerings: Tinder Select was launched in March, a version for “elite” users invited by peer nomination only. Back in 2015 there was also Tinder Plus. |
| What’s never mentioned is Tinder’s subtly dehumanising effect, how it turns relationships into a transactional game played by the atomised and lonely | What’s never mentioned is Tinder’s subtly dehumanising effect, how it turns relationships into a transactional game played by the atomised and lonely |
| Tinder Gold, however, ups the ante for luxury Tinder, and has been promoted with gleefully gaudy, elitist rhetoric. Available for £4.66 a month, or £3.50, if you buy a year’s membership, it’s described as a “first-class swipe experience”, a “members-only service, offering our most exclusive features”. | Tinder Gold, however, ups the ante for luxury Tinder, and has been promoted with gleefully gaudy, elitist rhetoric. Available for £4.66 a month, or £3.50, if you buy a year’s membership, it’s described as a “first-class swipe experience”, a “members-only service, offering our most exclusive features”. |
| For every user, Tinder Gold will curate a buffet of partners waiting to be liked back (an option called “likes you”). It removes ads and offers unlimited likes, five “super likes” a day (for when you’re really, really thirsty), “passport” (location changes), and “boost” (your profile becomes more visible). | For every user, Tinder Gold will curate a buffet of partners waiting to be liked back (an option called “likes you”). It removes ads and offers unlimited likes, five “super likes” a day (for when you’re really, really thirsty), “passport” (location changes), and “boost” (your profile becomes more visible). |
| There’s also “rewind”, the backtracking option for users who dismiss potential matches too quickly. There’s something funny and a little bit grim about this feature; for a fee, it lets customers undermine the flippant premise offered by Tinder in the first place. | There’s also “rewind”, the backtracking option for users who dismiss potential matches too quickly. There’s something funny and a little bit grim about this feature; for a fee, it lets customers undermine the flippant premise offered by Tinder in the first place. |
| Tinder has inserted itself into daily life and has rewritten the rules of everyday behaviour. Now it is offering a chance to restore a little humanity to the experience of dating – but only to those who pay. | Tinder has inserted itself into daily life and has rewritten the rules of everyday behaviour. Now it is offering a chance to restore a little humanity to the experience of dating – but only to those who pay. |
| Tinder’s appeal, like that of rival dating apps, hinges on the promise of instant satisfaction: its ease of use (a simple swipe for yes or no), the minimal personal commitment (users submit only pictures and a 500-character bio) and the promise of near-instantaneous sex, or at the least a flirty chat with the person you’ve “matched” with. | Tinder’s appeal, like that of rival dating apps, hinges on the promise of instant satisfaction: its ease of use (a simple swipe for yes or no), the minimal personal commitment (users submit only pictures and a 500-character bio) and the promise of near-instantaneous sex, or at the least a flirty chat with the person you’ve “matched” with. |
| The idea is to sift through people quickly; one ad for Tinder Plus depicts a young, attractive female user escaping her office job by bed-hopping her way around the world using Tinder, an oddly twee sex odyssey that declines to show the mornings-after, the inbox dross and the dick pics she probably had to sift through to facilitate her tour. | The idea is to sift through people quickly; one ad for Tinder Plus depicts a young, attractive female user escaping her office job by bed-hopping her way around the world using Tinder, an oddly twee sex odyssey that declines to show the mornings-after, the inbox dross and the dick pics she probably had to sift through to facilitate her tour. |
| What is never mentioned is Tinder’s subtly dehumanising effect, how it turns relationships – already fraught with neurosis – into a transactional game played by the atomised and lonely. | What is never mentioned is Tinder’s subtly dehumanising effect, how it turns relationships – already fraught with neurosis – into a transactional game played by the atomised and lonely. |
| This overlaps with a more sinister trend within tech culture for the “gamification” of life, traceable to self-improvement and business books, dating manuals such as The Game, and more overtly misogynistic online movements such as The Red Pill, where it’s implied that dating – and women themselves – can be “hacked” like operating systems to do men’s bidding (Angela Nagle links this thinking with the rise of the far-right movement the “alt-right” in her recent book, Kill All Normies). | This overlaps with a more sinister trend within tech culture for the “gamification” of life, traceable to self-improvement and business books, dating manuals such as The Game, and more overtly misogynistic online movements such as The Red Pill, where it’s implied that dating – and women themselves – can be “hacked” like operating systems to do men’s bidding (Angela Nagle links this thinking with the rise of the far-right movement the “alt-right” in her recent book, Kill All Normies). |
| The idea of the “Tinder closer” speaks directly to this trend – someone with a “killer line”, which frames seduction as a Glengarry Glen Ross-style marketingselling manoeuvre. | The idea of the “Tinder closer” speaks directly to this trend – someone with a “killer line”, which frames seduction as a Glengarry Glen Ross-style marketingselling manoeuvre. |
| Meanwhile Tinder hacking has become a cottage industry, giving rise to sites such as Swipe Helper and TinderHacks.com, Tinder for Experts ebooks, and a litany of supposed tricks to score 80% more matches and date models. | Meanwhile Tinder hacking has become a cottage industry, giving rise to sites such as Swipe Helper and TinderHacks.com, Tinder for Experts ebooks, and a litany of supposed tricks to score 80% more matches and date models. |
| It’s little surprise to learn how this same logic works within Tinder itself; the company maintains an internal ranking system of its users, called the Elo score (a term derived from chess player rankings), which grades users according to their “desirability”. | It’s little surprise to learn how this same logic works within Tinder itself; the company maintains an internal ranking system of its users, called the Elo score (a term derived from chess player rankings), which grades users according to their “desirability”. |
| Other high-grossing apps take a similar approach, encroaching on “real life” in ever more inventive ways. There’s Netflix, the streaming platform whose chief executive admits their main competitor is sleep. There’s Candy Crush Saga, the addictive mobile game that turns escapist pleasure into a kind of gruelling, repetitive work. | Other high-grossing apps take a similar approach, encroaching on “real life” in ever more inventive ways. There’s Netflix, the streaming platform whose chief executive admits their main competitor is sleep. There’s Candy Crush Saga, the addictive mobile game that turns escapist pleasure into a kind of gruelling, repetitive work. |
| These apps deliver instant satisfaction in excess, until the “fun” is so relentless it’s not fun any more. On Tinder how many users are “ghosted”, “breadcrumbed” or led on without ever actually meeting? We are taught to flirt, to love, like robots; then are surprised when we feel nothing. | These apps deliver instant satisfaction in excess, until the “fun” is so relentless it’s not fun any more. On Tinder how many users are “ghosted”, “breadcrumbed” or led on without ever actually meeting? We are taught to flirt, to love, like robots; then are surprised when we feel nothing. |
| It’s tempting to view Tinder as entertainment rather than a means to real life hookups and relationships, not least in this latest Tinder Gold iteration. Instead it might just be a game designed to fill the gaps in life, the lunch breaks and solitary moments, with a series of Tamagotchi partners who can be switched off when they get annoying. | It’s tempting to view Tinder as entertainment rather than a means to real life hookups and relationships, not least in this latest Tinder Gold iteration. Instead it might just be a game designed to fill the gaps in life, the lunch breaks and solitary moments, with a series of Tamagotchi partners who can be switched off when they get annoying. |
| • Roisin Kiberd is a writer based in Dublin focusing on technology and culture | • Roisin Kiberd is a writer based in Dublin focusing on technology and culture |
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