Not ready for real love? Tinder is the one for you

There was once a time when finding a twenty-something on a dating site was as rare as finding a pensioner in a branch of a Hollywood Bowl. Having an online dating profile was a last-ditch attempt at love reserved only for those intent on finding a long-term partner. Match.com, E Harmony, Guardian Soulmates; the clue was in the name. An earnest, humourless amalgamation of abstract nouns promising everlasting love. They were websites that boasted of their high marriage rates and whose users all listed ‘the great outdoors’ as a hobby. Dating sites were not entered into lightly.

Then, in 2013, an app called Tinder was launched and a back door was opened into this brave new world for all sorts of people to pour into; the young professional who’s too busy to meet someone, the divorcee looking for fun, the twenty-something looking for love. Blink and you might have missed it, but the stigma of online dating evaporated over night and for a short while, it seemed like every single person under 35 had a Tinder profile.