Students swipe right on worthwhile partners

Written By Nikole Kost, Online Photo Editor

When Leah Lake learned that her Tinder match was engaged, she messaged her match’s fiancee on Facebook.

Kayla Damazo signed up for Tinder to mock her ex; however, she ended up finding an unexpected relationship.

Cierra Barefoot was studying abroad in Rome when she signed up for Tinder and found more than a casual date.

Tinder, a popular social network, has become a modern dating success tool rather than just for a weekend hookup.

“I’ve met about 20 people on tinder,” Lake said. “I’ve had my fair share of Tinder successes and, obviously, not-successes.”

Tinder is an online dating app with headquarters based out of Los Angeles, CA.

Tinder started in 2012 with intentions for online chatting. Swiping right on someone means you want to match with them. Swiping left means you are not interested.

There are 1.6 billion swipes, 26 million matches per day, 20+ billion matches, 190+ countries and 1.5 million dates per week, according to Tinder’s website.

Lake, a senior sports, arts and entertainment (SAEM) major, signed up for Tinder in high school.

“I signed up when I was actually 17, so I wasn’t allowed on it yet,” Lake said.

The age minimum to sign up for Tinder is 18.

“I signed up because a lot of my older friends were on it,” Lake said. “I matched with a lot of people who were engaged, who had fiancees.”

Once, Lake thought she found someone engaged on Tinder but was mistaken. Lake decided to scroll through one of her match’s Instagram, where she found the match with another girl.

“He had pictures of him with a girl and she had a ring so I messaged her,” Lake said. “They aren’t engaged anymore.”

Lake and the ex-fiance of her match are friends on Facebook and still occasionally talk.

Lake then swiped right on her now-boyfriend. His bio said, “Only on here for a serious relationship.”

Lake’s boyfriend is a full-time tattoo artist at Nice Ink in Canonsburg.

“He sent me an Obama gif and I sent him a Michelle gif and the rest is history,” Lake said.

Next month will be their one year anniversary. They are currently apartment hunting.

Damazo, a junior SAEM major, was on Tinder for about a month before swiping left on her now-boyfriend.

“It was just to joke around with my friends and to point out the not so attractive people and to find all of our exes on there and kinda laugh about it,” Damazo said.

Damazo did not meet with anyone on Tinder until she started talking to her boyfriend.

“Funny story is he swiped right on me and I actually swiped left on him but I had all of my social media in my profile and he started following my Snapchat and that’s how we started talking,” Damazo said.

He messaged her on Snapchat after her story showed her younger brother dancing to Just Dance Revolution. They have been together for over two years.

Barefoot, junior SAEM major, who is currently studying abroad this semester, has been off and on Tinder for the past couple years.

“I signed up again the first week in Rome one night because I thought it was a good outlet to meet Italian guys,” Barefoot said.

Barefoot’s Tinder bio said she wanted to find good places to eat.

“I got some perverted comments about it, just the usual,” Barefoot said.

Barefoot swiped right on a guy whose bio was similar to hers.

“He wasn’t my usual type but, nonetheless, I thought he was still very attractive,” Barefoot said.

Barefoot decided to message him first and they ended up going out to eat. The ensuing date ended up being a perfect encapsulation of a successful Tinder story.

“I thought it was going to be more of a casual date, but it ended up being the best day of my life,” Barefoot said. “We have now been talking for a month and I couldn’t be happier.”