15 Ways I Swipe Left Instantly

What Boys Hate About Your Tinder Profile

Hendrik Spree
3 min readApr 30, 2014

I wouldn’t go so far to call them rules. But for most men there are certain no-gos regarding women’s Tinder profiles. The app is often blamed for bringing the shallowness of online dating services to another level. Or as Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic puts it in a more positive way:

In our technosexual era, the process of dating has not only been gamified, but also sexualised, by technology. Mobile dating is much more than a means to an end, it is an end in itself. With Tinder, the pretext is to hook-up, but the real pleasure is derived from the Tindering process.

Defenders say it works like judging strangers in real life: You don’t have a second chance for the first impression. But enough of that (you can inform yourself about Tinder better elsewhere. And I recommend you to get familiar with the platform — at least otherwise chances are very little you’ll enjoy this listicle.

front and back

The pictures to avoid:

  1. Pets — no matter, if cats, dogs or (worst!) horses.
  2. All animals. No dolphins, even if you managed to swim with them. Exception: being photobombed.
  3. Costumes — not only for carnival in the German Rhineland, but in general. Especially, if you wear a pet costume. Meow!
  4. That “jump in the air” shot on a Thai beach.
  5. You on top of some scyscraper with a metropolitan skyline behind you.
  6. All pictures looking too touristic. (But still no Empire State Building pic, if you’re born and live in NYC.)
  7. Related to No 3: Dirndl dresses.
  8. You’re a social person, but don’t want other people in your profile pic? Find a better way than an image of yourself holding some alcoholic beverage.
big and small

The bios to avoid:

  1. “Carpe diem.”
  2. No “sporty” or “workout enthusiast” or “fitness freak” or whatever you call it (even in combo with a cheering photo-proof).
  3. “Looking for…” Nobody cares about that. A Tinder profile is a pitch, not a briefing. Tinder is the For sale, not the Wanted section of the blackboard called online dating.
  4. Don’t even think about writing words like “marriage” or “children” — men can see that in the look of your eyes.
on and off

The nicknames to avoid:

  1. If your real first-name consists of two syllables, there is no need to devide it. In general: If think you have a “funny” two-parted pseudonym on Facebook, please rethink its use for Tinder. And for FB, too.
  2. “Nicknames”. You know, what I mean.

The topic to avoid:

  1. Politics.
https://twitter.com/schwarzblond/status/449226166730514432/

Especially the last one, of course, does apply to both sexes and all gender.

What are the things men should avoid on Tinder?

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