Faculty Introduction for “Swiped off My Feet — Tinder Gold and Superficiality in Modern Relationships”

In Finn’s Writing as Inquiry class, our final research project was to turn the skills students had learned in close-reading argumentative essays towards close-reading something more personal: an app on their phone. As in their previous essays, the goal was to uncover a value the app seemed driven by, or perhaps projected into our increasingly online lives. Finn’s essay “Swiped off My Feet — Tinder Gold and Superficiality in Modern Relationships” takes an admirably fearless dive into the biggest, blurriest value of all: love.

A daunting project for any writer, indeed! But Finn shows two crucial skills here. First, there’s his close attention to defining his terms: he begins examining Tinder Gold through the broad lens of love & dating, and then narrows it down, source by source, to physical attraction, ultimately building his argument on the distinction he’s drawn. Second, he makes an inspired connection: instead of forever arguing with the clucking Tinder commentary, Finn jumps silos to explain the app’s matchups not as love but as an example of networked individualism. This comfort in both explaining others’ ideas and taking them to new places — along with his dry, self-deprecating humor about the whole project — makes Finn’s essay an excellent example of rigorous, engaging scholarship.

Read “Swiped off My Feet — Tinder Gold and Superficiality in Modern Relationships”.

Dan Keane, Lecturer in the Writing Program