By the time I return to New Orleans, the novelty has worn off. But just as I’m about to delete the app, I hear from Lori, the 22-year-old aspiring doctor, which keeps me tethered to the app for a bit longer. We’ve stayed in touch, though I wouldn’t describe any of our exchanges as even bordering on flirtatious, which is what makes this particular message so jolting: It’s a Friday night, and Lori wants my phone number so she can “drunk text” me throughout the evening. I give her my number, and soon enough … she’s sending photos! Nothing tawdry, but since I ‘m at a stuffy dinner party, these glimpses into the life of a sorta -stranger are an entertaining diversion.

As it gets later, however, Lori’s messages take a blunt turn. “I want to fuck you,” she writes, a message I find more jarring than flattering. Can you truly “want” someone who exists solely on a phone? Over the next few days, her photos https://hookupdate.net/snapcougars-review/ get more and more explicit: Here she is in a bikini, here she is out of the bikini. She is indisputably sexy, but if I’m turned on, it’s more by the bizarre context of these exchanges than their lurid content. Continue reading “Once a salve to post-breakup loneliness, my Tinder usage has begun to foster a deeper, more existential kind”