Whether you’re planning a vacation, a business trip or simply expanding your social network, by using the Passport feature, you are basically swiping before you arrive..
If you take into account the many users in relationships who use it as a recreational app like you would any game, the number of users in relationships might seem less alarming.
Bridgette Selby, 32, who met her current boyfriend on Tinder last year, said that she still plays on the app on her friends’ phones from time to time. She said it’s purely for fun and many times it’s to look at the women her guy friends are interested in dating.
Chris Pezza, 31, said that his married friends have a vicarious relationship with Tinder through him.
“They set the age range for 18-24 and then look through women,” Pezza said.
Tinder did not reply to several requests for an interview, but judging by their staunch stance that Tinder is not meant to be a hookup app, I think it’s a safe bet that they would maintain that cheating was not the motive behind Passport.
Still, I can’t help but think that if I saw the Tinder app on my husband’s phone, my initial reaction would not be one of understanding. “But, honey, it’s for business and social connections!” Riiiiiiiight. It’s Tinder, after all, and it carries a stigma with it.
From extensive interviews with singles who are on Tinder, only one person I spoke with is paying for the upgrade: a single man who travels frequently for business.
Pezza, who has used the app since it was introduced in 2012, said he would never pay for it.
“I refuse to pay for it, mostly out of spite,” Pezza said.
Anna Martin, 38, echoed this sentiment.
“I’m not going to pay for it,” she said. “One of the reasons I didn’t join initially was because I thought they charged you to use the app. I’m still not going to pay for that app.”
But 275,000 are paying for it. While we can assume that most people aren’t using this upgrade to cheat, the Ashley Madison incident reminds us that we can’t be too naïve.
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