Popular Culture Review 30.2
endless , and particularly for females , it is easy to become overwhelmed with a long list of matches , yet substantial conversation or a real-life meeting may still feel far-fetched .
Second , a lack of respect . Tinder , along with other forms of digital communication ( e . g . social media platforms like Instagram ), allow for people to disappear without a trace . No awkward conversations , no painful confrontations . However , the lack of respect can happen long before we are ghosted by someone , such as via a barrage of thoughtless , uncomfortable , and sometimes disturbing messages . Digital media technologies and social media platforms have made it easy for us to forget there is a real person on the other side of our mediated conversations . As a media and communications professor , I find the above dynamic disturbing and encourage my students to understand and contextualize media objects in order to become both informed consumers and conscientious citizens .
Moving back to the statistical discussion of my Tinder experiments , I must admit that after I gathered the stats on the total number of profiles I swiped through , matched and talked with , etc ., I attempted to compile a visual graph that could clearly communicate the figures . However , the disparity in the numerical range was so large , that any visual rendition looked bizarre and not in the least bit helpful . Consequently , I decided to write out the stats in a bulleted format and I urge you to pay close attention to figures below , as they may surprise you :
• Over the course of a two-month period , I was actively on Tinder for 35 days .
• Of these 35 days , which equals a total of 840 hours , I spent about 6 hours actively swiping , with addi-
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