How to Turn Messages into Memories

As I enter my 24th year, I also enter into real adulthood in a new city.

After graduating, moving, and settling into a new life, I realized something: Ive been single for a long time, and Im tired of it.

My usual hangouts (bars, spin studios, coffee shops, and my female-dominated workplace) have not proven fruitful when it comes to meeting nice guys, so about a month ago, I decided it was about time for a change of pace.

Because of all this, I was led to embark upon one of the weirdest, funniest, and most rewarding adventures of my life: I joined five different dating apps at once .

Ive never been into online dating, so signing up for any app was daunting.

That being said, though, Im not one to half-ass a project.

So I (fearfully) opted to download and create profiles on not one but five of the most popular dating apps, and I committed to spending a full month as a member of each.

I did this for myself, of course, but I also did it for my friends, peers, and acquaintances.

I wanted to definitively compare and test the worth, consistency, and value of each individual app.

I tested their standards of profiles (yikessee more below), their processes, and their successes and failures.

I did all this for one main reason: to make this process easier for all of you who want to try it.

Go ahead, call me The Bachelorette of Online Dating (Ill wait).

Here, youll find a breakdown of my experiences: the good, the bad, and the creepy.

The Apps.

1.

Tinder 2.

Bumble 3.

Coffee Meets Bagel 4.

Hinge 5.

Match.com.

The Setup.

I, along with the rest of my editorial team, chose the five most popular apps to try (most popular based on relevancy, not actual numbers).

I downloaded each app and made myself a profile.

This part was harder than expectedfor the sake of the experiment, I wanted to keep each profile consistent to the next.

While each individual app is unique, I wanted to present myself as uniformly as possible (For example, while Tinder has more of a hook-up stereotype than Hinge does, I didnt want to present myself as more open to hook-ups on one versus the other).

Its difficult to decide how to present yourself in this capacity: How much is appropriate to share, but how much is not enough?

Once these decisions were made and my profiles were created, it became official: There was no turning back.

A note: I am straight, so I was looking for just men on all of these apps and will discuss that experience, so I cant talk about how it might be for someone who is queer.

However, all of these apps are approved by our queer editor, so any LGBTQ Everygirls out there can date their hearts out too.

1.

Its Going Down, Im Yelling Tinder Price: Free (optional in-app upgrades available for purchase) I had really high hopes for Tinder.

I have a friend who met her fiancé on Tinder and another friend just dated a Tinderella for over a year.

I believe in its potential.

That being said, however, I went in with an open mind but a heavy sense of skepticism.

Ive heard the success stories, but Ive also heard the horror storiesas Im sure you have too.

Thankfully, though, Tinder is super easy to get the hang of.

You connect to your Facebook to make a profile, so the photos are pretty much selected for you.

Plus, no one can start a conversation with you unless youve already liked (or swiped right) them, which theoretically limits the chances of creeps (key word: theoretically).

Tinder: where a good bio is worth a thousand (cheesy) words.

The high: There are so many guys on Tinder.

Some of them were incredibly sweet, even if they were sweet in a cringe-inducing, cheesy way (no, Im not a Charlies Angel).

I sincerely believe that Tinder is a great way to realize just how many fish are in the sea, even if that only serves you the purpose of realizing theyre not quite the fish youre looking for.

Ah men, masters of the opening line.

The low(s): There was the guy who told me he wrote me a poem, which turned out to be an unbelievably offensive piece of pornography that prompted me to feel like I needed to simultaneously take a shower and scream into a pillow, and of course, there was the disturbingly high number of men I accidentally super liked. I thought you could only Pass (left swipe) or Like (right swipe), but no if you swipe up, it notifies the guy that you Super Like him.

Seriously, it is so easy to mistakenly swipe up instead of right, so I look like the worlds most eligible yet most desperate woman in cyberspace.

In conclusion: Tinder is not as scary as people think it is, but you still shouldnt trust these strangers too quickly.

2.