Amazingly, I met my wife on Tinder in 2017.
I'd been in a relationship between summer 2013 until about spring 2017, so I'd been involved while dating apps took off. We split up around spring 2017, as I said, and so I joined Tinder as an experiment. I was on there for about a month before I matched with my wife. We went on 2-3 dates in the summer of 2017, continued chatting while she went home from uni for the summer, then when she came back she met my friends and we made things official in the autumn.
That doesn't mean I didn't have some weird experiences in the 2-3 months I used Tinder for, though. One girl I matched with complimented my eyebrows in the very first message she sent me and then asked me if I plucked them. I said "Nah, plucking kills so I just neaten the edges with a razor". Her response was simply, "Oh... that's cringe" and she unmatched. People are so fucking weird on the apps. A compliment turned into slagging me off within one message.
Then another girl I matched with refused to come into Manchester after the Arena attack due to fears about being killed. I thought she was being a bit of a wimp, but I said fair enough and offered to travel to Glossop to meet her for the date instead. She said "I'm dog sitting for my sister that day - come over, it'd just be us two". I said that was alright, but I double-checked to see if she was implying anything by saying "it'd just be us two".
I'll be honest, I'm not an instant hook-up/one night stand type of person. I've had precisely one of those experiences in my life with a friend I'd known for years and, truthfully, it was a depressing incident that really damaged our friendship. I've regretted it ever since. I checked with this new girl if she was implying anything by saying "it'd just be us two" because I didn't want to end up in a situation where she was expecting something on our first meet-up.
All I said was, "I'm more than happy to come over and hang out but you saying it'd just be us two... just checking, you're not expecting something to happen, are you?" Well she kicked off royally. "Oh my god, who do you think I am?" "I only joined Tinder just to make friends" "This is disgusting, I can't believe you would think that" etc. Alright fine, if I misunderstood what she'd said, fair enough, but the way she kicked off was honestly a major, major shock.
We'd been chatting just fine for about a week or two, then one little misunderstanding (which, to be honest, was hard to avoid given that she'd emphasised it would be just us two alone in a house) and she flew off the handle. I added the slightly irrational Manchester-related anxieties and the insane mood swing together, apologised, and unmatched. Who the hell joins Tinder, a well-known dating app, "just to make friends"? Absolutely mad behviour.
Pretty soon after that I met my wife and, after a couple of months of dating her, we deleted the apps for good. Made things official in October 2017. Moved in together in December 2019. Got engaged in March 2023. Married each other in August 2025. And thank god, because so many people are fucking mental aren't they, and the thought of ever having to go back on the apps or get used to another person puts the fear right into me.
