It’s like a casino without a jackpot. Only annoying ads. Sometimes hookups. But probably no chance to find a real partner there.
In my country we have a thing called “dry Feb.” It’s usually connected to taking a pause from alcohol. I usually do it to have a month-long break from watching p*rn. Which I’m doing now too.
But probably an even bigger time-waster, soul-breaker, and dopamine-destroyer for me has been Grindr recently.
I’m 35 now. I started late. I was with a boy for the first time when I was 28. Since then I’ve been using Grindr. I realized on a daily basis. I probably became addicted to it. Curious about the detox and side effects.
I always hoped I would find “the one” there. Maybe I would meet him because we would share similar preferences in bed. But maybe it’s an illusion. I know people who met there and became life partners. But maybe even they had a different “go on a date first” approach.
I became too lazy to even do that. Even via the other apps. Not a conspiracy theorist here, but is it really in their interest to make us quit by finding a stable relationship?
And what became so annoying with Grindr recently is that you can’t even find a relevant hookup there. They’ve limited who you can see so much that if you’re not physically in the city center, it’s basically impossible to find someone relevant.
In the free version you can’t even use filters. I used to do that trick of setting the age to a 1-year category (like 18–19, haha), but then they limited it to 5 years (18–23, 24–29, 30–35 or so). Basically impossible to use other filters.
And the ads. These pop out at you right away. You click on a message and bam—you can’t see it and reply. You either need to wait and try to—very often unsuccessfully—switch it off. Or them off. Or restart the app, which I almost always did.
Or you can pay. But the prices are absolutely insane. I would be willing to pay 2–4 euros a month. Maybe. But not over 20. And you don’t even get the full version for it.
So bye bye Grindr. See you in March. Or never.
Get better. Or let someone create a real competitor. Available even in Central Europe.
What is your experience? When did you lose patience with Grindr? Are there better apps? Or should we come back to meeting life partners in the real world again? How did you meet your life partner?