Connecting People Across a Network with Tinder
The popular matchmaking app tinder has announced that it will be adding new “premium” features including an undo button and a passport option. The passport option allows users to match with people from an area outside of their 120 mile radius. This new option adds new functionality to tinder to make it possibly one of the greatest matchmaking services in existence.
Even before the addition of the passport function, tinder was a great service for connecting people who may live right near one another but have no strong tie between them. It also notifies of you of any mutual friends that you might have, as well as any mutual likes. This allows you to see any ties that you might have with the person, and discover a connection with a person who you would be compatible with and just never had the fortune of meeting. It can also connect two people with no mutual friends, but have mutual likes, which is even more beneficial. This is because these two people most likely would not meet without any personal connection between them.
In terms of what we have learned in this class, Tinder is a way of connecting people from across a network, who were only connected previously by weak ties, if any at all. For example, in such a large network as Cornell, there could be person A and person B, who each really enjoy the same tv shows, comedians, music, and would be excellent in a relationship. They never meet however, because they are in different majors, lived on opposite sides of north campus during freshman year, and are not in the same clubs or other activities. Here tinder can bridge the gap and allow for connecting of two nodes with strong potential even though a social media site such as Facebook would never connect them because they have no physical ties between them.
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-tinder-plus-20141106-story.html