After watching a TED talk that involved technology and human interactions, I was reminded of an article I came across a couple of weeks ago. It was called There's Now A Tinder For Friendships. The article talked about a new app called Hey VINA, an iPhone app that helps women find new friends. In the style of Tinder, the dating app, Hey VINA will help you find other women to become friends with in your area, with the ability to swipe left or right on someone of interest. As someone who has never used a dating app, but has seen plenty of her own friends use it - I found this shocking yet intriguing at the same time.
Being from elsewhere to attend grad school means having to find new friends if you don't want to spend all of your time with your fellow classmates. So far, I have achieved that goal by one new friend and I met her in the laundry room (she lives in my building). Between school. my job, and working on personal and professional projects, I hardly have time to make a new friend that's outside of Columbia. I am also a bit shy, so making new friends is not a piece of cake even if I had time. I downloaded the Hey VINA app, but unfortunately, it's only available in California with a waiting list for other cities.
I didn't think much of it until I ran across another app, this time, it was the Tinder of Business Networking called Shapr. Using a LinkedIn profile as a start for your Shapr profile, Shapr allows you to find other professionals who are nearby. It’s simple enough to swipe left or right, but I was soon worried when I realized I should look at how my LinkedIn profile imported into Shapr. After quickly making a few adjustments and praying that no one checked me out during this brief time, I swiped through a couple of more profiles. I’m still waiting for some matches and hope for the best.
Now that I feel the anticipation that my friends on Tinder must feel, I ponder on whether or not this is still an idea that society should let grow. While I am nervous around people, I want to be able to go up to someone and introduce myself. I want someone to come introduce themselves to me. I don’t want to lose the bit of confidence I have at times for these interactions. Maybe for an extrovert, this may be a good tool because they are always talking and finding others anyway. But maybe it’s good for an introvert like me who can charm someone with my words first. Being a writer, I would like to think that my words are interesting or at least, witty. If I can’t get someone with my written word, how am I suppose to babble in front of them?
WHO HAS THE TIME TO NETWORK?! Whether it’s personal or professional, you have to set aside a time to network and connect with people. Maybe this is a solution. Something that fits more into your time as you are on the go with your day-to-day. I kind of like the anxiety of a face-to-face meeting, though. Most of the time, these don’t seem to go well for me, but maybe someone will remember me. Maybe we will connect. Maybe I will tell them to add me on Facebook, where I am definitely 10 times more interesting (trust me, I’ve developed “fans” this way, oddly enough).
In the meantime, I will keep swiping right and hope someone swipes right to me.
TED Talk: Connected, But Alone?
Inspiration Article: There's Now A Tinder For Friendships
Hey VINA: http://heyvina.com
Shapr: http://www.shapr.ne
Being from elsewhere to attend grad school means having to find new friends if you don't want to spend all of your time with your fellow classmates. So far, I have achieved that goal by one new friend and I met her in the laundry room (she lives in my building). Between school. my job, and working on personal and professional projects, I hardly have time to make a new friend that's outside of Columbia. I am also a bit shy, so making new friends is not a piece of cake even if I had time. I downloaded the Hey VINA app, but unfortunately, it's only available in California with a waiting list for other cities.
I didn't think much of it until I ran across another app, this time, it was the Tinder of Business Networking called Shapr. Using a LinkedIn profile as a start for your Shapr profile, Shapr allows you to find other professionals who are nearby. It’s simple enough to swipe left or right, but I was soon worried when I realized I should look at how my LinkedIn profile imported into Shapr. After quickly making a few adjustments and praying that no one checked me out during this brief time, I swiped through a couple of more profiles. I’m still waiting for some matches and hope for the best.
Now that I feel the anticipation that my friends on Tinder must feel, I ponder on whether or not this is still an idea that society should let grow. While I am nervous around people, I want to be able to go up to someone and introduce myself. I want someone to come introduce themselves to me. I don’t want to lose the bit of confidence I have at times for these interactions. Maybe for an extrovert, this may be a good tool because they are always talking and finding others anyway. But maybe it’s good for an introvert like me who can charm someone with my words first. Being a writer, I would like to think that my words are interesting or at least, witty. If I can’t get someone with my written word, how am I suppose to babble in front of them?
WHO HAS THE TIME TO NETWORK?! Whether it’s personal or professional, you have to set aside a time to network and connect with people. Maybe this is a solution. Something that fits more into your time as you are on the go with your day-to-day. I kind of like the anxiety of a face-to-face meeting, though. Most of the time, these don’t seem to go well for me, but maybe someone will remember me. Maybe we will connect. Maybe I will tell them to add me on Facebook, where I am definitely 10 times more interesting (trust me, I’ve developed “fans” this way, oddly enough).
In the meantime, I will keep swiping right and hope someone swipes right to me.
TED Talk: Connected, But Alone?
Inspiration Article: There's Now A Tinder For Friendships
Hey VINA: http://heyvina.com
Shapr: http://www.shapr.ne
Till next time (and there will be more next times soon!),
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