Double chins, bad lighting and lots of cats
There's no shortage of art projects inspired by online dating. There's the Belgian artist who displayed Tinder profiles side-by-side with users' LinkedIn photos. Or the woman who responded to online creeps by drawing sketches of what they might look like naked.
The latest version is an #OnTinderAtTinder hashtag started by Someecards late last week. And it's pretty entertaining.
On the left, a Tinder profile pic. On the right, an image of what that user looks like while browsing Tinder. The left-side photos are sexy, polished and posed. The right-side photos are full of cats, double chins and under-eye circles for everyone to see.
I thought about adding my own #OnTinderAtTinder photo mash-up to the mix, but I'm not that brave.
Someecards sums up the Tinder vs. reality dichotomy like this: “In profiles, people are vivacious, hot and fun. When they're staring at their phones and wondering if they'll ever meet someone they can stand, they're the opposite.”
Similarly, much of the response to the photo mash-ups has called the polished and posed Tinder pics “misleading” and the selfies more reflective of real life.
While it's true that golden-hour lighting doesn't follow a person around 24/7, neither does that look of boredom and desperation that could be called Tinder Resting Face.
Those candid shots are misleading in a different way. Say you were to get off the Internet and meet that left and right version of the person on Tinder — and then get into a relationship with that person. In that case, you'd get both the left and right versions of that person — plus everything in between. You get to see the whole person, who's hopefully much more balanced than a best and worst snapshot.
A note of caution for all selfie-takers, regardless of relationship status: Studies have linked the posting of numerous selfies to higher instances of narcissism and psychopathy. And researchers at Florida State University recently found that the more selfies someone posts on Instagram, the greater the chance that they'll experience romantic conflict or a breakup.
Leading them back to Tinder, of course.