Generation Z, who avidly consumes series like Friends and enjoys wearing low-waisted jeans, seems to have a weakness for the 90s and 2000s (even though both decades caught the centennials in their earliest infancy). Perhaps for this reason, Tinder has released a new blind date functionality that has roots in the 90s and 2000s that Generation Z seems to miss so much.
With this new function, Tinder wants centennials to experience first-hand what dating was like at that time, not so long ago, when today’s omnipresent smartphones did not yet exist.
The new functionality of the “dating” app matches users based on their personal preferences and allows them to start conversations before laying eyes on each other’s photos. Tinder’s blind date feature will be available soon in the United States, and will later land across the globe.
Tinder ensures that its new blind date functionality tries to respond to the demands of centennials, young people born between 1997 and 2012, who seek to dress their relationships with greater authenticity, freeing themselves from the clutches of superficiality in their partner choices.
“The blind date feature takes the pressure off users and allows them to bring their personalities to the fore before hooking up with someone,” explains Tinder. It is an “experience that reflects the ‘dating’ habits of Generation Z, which is very focused on authenticity, and also embraces the nostalgia of the 90s to return to pre-smartphone dates”, add the app.
In search of lost authenticity through blind dates
According to Tinder, in the first tests of its new blind date feature, users achieved 40% more “matches” than when their profiles were fully visible.
Tinder’s blind date feature asks users to respond to a series of icebreaker responses and then matches them with those who have gotten off the hook with similar responses. The app then subjects users to a timed chat after which they will decide whether or not they want to follow or not by meeting the person they’ve chatted with and eventually viewing their profile photos.
Blind dates are part of a new catalog of interactive features on Tinder that, baptized with the name of Explore, are especially aimed at Generation Z.
Tinder was born on a university campus in 2012 and was initially showered with criticism. In 2015, Vanity Fair dedicated a vitriolic article to the app in which it warned of the end of the romance to which Tinder seemed to be condemning humanity. A decade after hatching, Tinder has transformed the way people search for romantic partners and is the most popular dating app in the world.
