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> Mr. Woo said a Grindr survey of its users found that two-thirds of them were using the application to find new friends, to network or to kill time, as well as

> Mr. Woo said a Grindr survey of its users found that two-thirds of them were using the application to find new friends, to network or to kill time, as well as to hook up. I keep hearing this from friends, and I honestly don't get it. The couple of times I've gone on Grindr, all I saw were things like: http://www.douchebagsofgrindr.com/ http://www.douchebagsofgrindr.com/ and http://www.reddit.com/r/lolgrindr http://www.reddit.com/r/lolgrindr . Those certainly represent the worst-of-the-worst, but it's clear what the 'Grindr community' is looking for when they log in to the app. On the other hand, a friend of mine just told me last week about an in-depth political debate he got into with a guy on Grindr. While I can think of of a few ways to segue from 'check out this dick shot' to 'what do you think of Mitch McConnell', it still leaves me a bit baffled to hear that this actually happens. My perspective may be a bit skewed because of my work with more, um "traditional" online dating (a phrase which makes me chuckle to type), but I have a hard time understanding how such meaningful conversations arise from a platform where people are quite clearly on the hunt. Sidenote: It also amuses me how many of Grindr's ads are clearly hetero-oriented ('sexy [female] strippers nearby', etc.). I know they try to keep up the pretense that it's a 'social networking app for men', not just a hookup app for gay men, but.... still!

pavel_lishin 14y ago
> The couple of times I've gone on Grindr, all I saw were things like: http://www.douchebagsofgrindr.com/ http://www.douchebagsofgrindr.com/ and http://www.reddit.com/r/lolgrindr http://www.reddit.com/r/lolgrindr Isn't it like twitter in that regard? Sturgeon's Law is universal.
drivebyacct2 14y ago
It's anecdotal and I'm still in the Midwest but nearly every single hit thats not leaking in from Lawrence, KS is "LTR oriented" or specifically not looking for a one time hookup. When I get out to Seattle I plan on attempting to make new friends through both Grindr and OkCupid but not necessarily exclusively for friends. Who knows.
potatolicious 14y ago
I do feel like the article is substantially overstating the generalizability of Grindr's model. I'm not that surprised that people are having substantial conversations on the service, but while the article seems to see this as Grindr evolving beyond its initial premise, I see it as simply a deepening of a mature platform. Which is to say, if you ever took away the hookup aspect of Grindr, everything comes crashing down. The platform isn't growing beyond hookups, it's layering things on top of it, which seems like a natural evolution. This is great, just not quite as world-changing as the article would have us believe. I sincerely doubt Grindr is a herald for a new means of mass communications.
psyklic 14y ago
A few common uses: only on for stimulation and rarely meet up, hookups, new to town and want to meet friends/going out buddies, looking for a relationship and don't know where else to meet guys, just on it to try it out, visiting and looking for the hot places to go, bored and wasting time. Dating is less formal nowadays, even with women. The distinction between a date and a hookup is getting blurry, since a lot of first dates nowadays end up at least making out. I'd say that even hookup-oriented guys are looking for a relationship with "the right person," so it isn't always clear saying that someone uses a service just for hookups. Plus, hookups often evolve into friendships or dates (and vice versa).

pavel_lishin 14y ago

> The couple of times I've gone on Grindr, all I saw were things like: http://www.douchebagsofgrindr.com/ http://www.douchebagsofgrindr.com/ and http://www.reddit.com/r/lolgrindr http://www.reddit.com/r/lolgrindr Isn't it like twitter in that regard? Sturgeon's Law is universal.

drivebyacct2 14y ago

It's anecdotal and I'm still in the Midwest but nearly every single hit thats not leaking in from Lawrence, KS is "LTR oriented" or specifically not looking for a one time hookup. When I get out to Seattle I plan on attempting to make new friends through both Grindr and OkCupid but not necessarily exclusively for friends. Who knows.

potatolicious 14y ago

I do feel like the article is substantially overstating the generalizability of Grindr's model. I'm not that surprised that people are having substantial conversations on the service, but while the article seems to see this as Grindr evolving beyond its initial premise, I see it as simply a deepening of a mature platform. Which is to say, if you ever took away the hookup aspect of Grindr, everything comes crashing down. The platform isn't growing beyond hookups, it's layering things on top of it, which seems like a natural evolution. This is great, just not quite as world-changing as the article would have us believe. I sincerely doubt Grindr is a herald for a new means of mass communications.

psyklic 14y ago

A few common uses: only on for stimulation and rarely meet up, hookups, new to town and want to meet friends/going out buddies, looking for a relationship and don't know where else to meet guys, just on it to try it out, visiting and looking for the hot places to go, bored and wasting time. Dating is less formal nowadays, even with women. The distinction between a date and a hookup is getting blurry, since a lot of first dates nowadays end up at least making out. I'd say that even hookup-oriented guys are looking for a relationship with "the right person," so it isn't always clear saying that someone uses a service just for hookups. Plus, hookups often evolve into friendships or dates (and vice versa).