By Sarah Licht
lichtsar@grinnell.edu

For those looking for love, dating apps can be an easy and accessible way to find others. Thanks to smartphones, anyone can easily download Tinder and a multitude of other dating apps. Nonetheless, there is a certain art to perfecting one’s personal profile in order to attract the maximum number of people. For those who are new to the dating app game or who want to perfect their skills, the Sexual Health Information Center has the answer.

This Friday, Dec. 7 at 6 p.m., at Bob’s Underground, the center is hosting a Tinder Workshop in order to help students build their dating profiles and become more comfortable with online dating.

“In our meetings, we brought up the topic of online dating, how it works and how Grinnell students use it,” said Zama Buthelezi ‘21, the student organizer of the workshop. 

The staff also discussed how students use Tinder while they are enrolled in the College versus how they use it outside of Grinnell. These discussions led to creating a workshop “to play around with Tinder and other dating apps and also to talk about dating online in Grinnell and outside Grinnell,” Buthelezi said. The workshop will also offer food, a photo booth and stations dedicated to creating bios for your Tinder profiles.

An exciting part of the upcoming workshop is the Tinder experts who will help guests perfect their dating app skills. The experts are “students who feel that they’re really good at Tinder and other dating apps. They will help [the SHIC staff] facilitate the process of creating really cool and efficient profiles,” Buthelezi said.

The numerous experts attending the workshop will be able to show those more inexperienced Tinder users how to make a fabulous first impression that is sure to make people want to swipe right.  For those who might feel insecure about their online dating abilities, the experts will be able to help everyone enhance their craft.

As a bit of a sneak preview of the Tinder Workshop, Buthelezi was able to offer a piece of dating app advice. She explained how a large part of giving the best first impression is the type and order of pictures used in someone’s profile.

“From the research I’ve done, people seem to have pretty consistent views about having the first picture be a picture of just you smiling, have one of you being adventurous and have one really cute one, like of you with a dog,” Buthelezi said.

For more advice on how to go above and beyond in creating a bio and how to stay safe while dating online both at the College and away from campus, the workshop will provide a great place to get that help.