STORY BY CLAUDIA WILLIAMS
It has been called “The Sadie Hawkins Dance of Dating” and is empowering woman to pick and choose who they want to message first, instead of being talked at.
Unlike on Tinder, where guys send overtly sexual messages and tacky pick-up lines, Bumble puts the power in our hands.
Bumble gives women the ability to pick and choose whom they want to spark up a conversation with.
When the “you’ve got a new match” message pops up on the two users phones, there is only one way to get the conversation started.
The girl has to message the guy first or else they disappear from each others lives forever.
If the girl doesn’t make the first move in 24 hours, their match is erased — never to be seen again.
The only control the guys have in the app is the ability to “save” a match for an extra 24 hours, in the hopes his dream girl gives in and sends him a message.
This new kind of dating app is changing the way we as women meet men online.
We now get to choose who we want to walk into our lives, and who we most definitely do not (insert swiping left action).
The idea behind the app is putting the power in the girls hand, a vastly different concept than the one, we as women, are used to on Tinder.
We usually don’t have to make the first move due to the eagerness men have when it comes to getting a conversation going and their strong desire to “grab a drink later on.”
The app protects women from unwanted, vulgar messages that are frequently sent on Tinder.
It takes the power out of the guys’ hands, and puts the pressure on us as females to go against the “norm” and make the first move.
Now I am not saying every guy on Tinder is a creepy, dirty-mouthed guy.
I have actually had some pretty nice guys message me and friends of mine have met their awesome boyfriends on the app, but in my opinion, the negative messages outweigh the positive ones, giving the app a negative connotation.
I love how Bumble gives women the empowerment to speak to guys how they please and when they please.
We no longer have to sit there and receive messages from a cute guy, who ruins that image by sending a graphic pick-up line that no girl would actually enjoy reading.
I uninstalled Tinder a while back due to this.
With Bumble, being able to choose whom I talk to makes me feel a lot less vulnerable. The ball is now in my court and I can toss it to whomever I want.
Former Tinder employee Whitney Wolfe and a group of other former employees launched the new app this year.
Wolfe created the app after the CMO of Tinder, Justin Mateen, sexually harassed her through unwanted messages, according to Jordan Crook at TechCrunch.com.
Her friends and co-workers at Tinder left the company with her and moved on to help her build Bumble.
Wolfe’s personal experience with real world, tinder-like harassment empowered her to create a new method of online dating, and inspired me to give the app a try.
I matched with a 22 year old whom I later messaged and had a decent conversation with, I swiped left for a guy who posed next to a woman that looked liked his wife and messaged a few other guys first.
Choosing whom I wanted to make connections with was empowering, and a relief knowing I (hopefully) would not be hearing any creepy pick-up lines.
I’ve spent enough time on Tinder, like most college students do, to know that the app rarely sparks great relationships.
I see Bumble as being the next big thing, a new wave of female empowerment and I am looking forward to seeing where the “Sadie Hawkins Dance Dating app” takes me.
