West Point Love— Just a Swipe Away
With Valentine’s Day here, and matters of the heart on the brain, I can’t help but think about how dating apps — Tinder and Bumble to name a couple— have changed the dating game. I was sitting with a friend the other day, and as she was swiping away on Tinder, she commented on the fact that there are more than a few boys from West Point on the apps, especially compared to the number of boys from other schools in the area.
Tinder and Bumble are location-based social apps, matching up mutually interested users so they can chat, meet up, possibly date, etc. Setting up a profile is really easy, because the apps pull from Facebook pictures. Minimalism is key in the mobile dating app world, so profiles usually consist of 3–5 pictures, the person’s age, location (no specifics, just their proximity to the other person in miles) and sometimes their education and occupation. People can write a short blurb about themselves if they want, but many choose against this. On Tinder, a right swipe on a person’s profile indicates that you’d like to chat with them, so as long as they’ve swiped right on your profile you can start chatting. Bumble is similar, except that only females have the ability to start a conversation, and if she chooses not to chat with her new connection within 24 hours, the connection disappears. Tinder and Bumble both offer the opportunity for same-sex connections, and since you don’t have to give someone a phone number in order to chat with them, they’re low risk for acquiring a stalker. Bumble and Tinder are not the only apps of their kind, but they are the most recognizable and most commonly used.
Mobile dating apps came into the world at the perfect time, for two reasons: the rise of mobile devices being used for everything, and the rise of the hookup culture. Apps like Bumble and Tinder revamped how people thought about online dating, but they also opened the door for people who needed a new way to meet and talk to people in the same geographical location as them.
Enter the United States Military Academy at West Point.
With a student body made up of 83% males and 17% females, the rules of love are a little different at West Point. I spoke with Josh, a third year cadet at West Point who wishes for his last name to remain anonymous, about Tinder and Bumble, and how he and his classmates rely on the apps to help them connect with girls outside of the West Point sphere.
Josh began by explaining what social life looks like at West Point. While each college and university has a slightly different tone in terms of romantic affairs and night life, West Point is drastically different for obvious reasons. Cadets have curfews and are not allowed to come and go as they please; and first year students, also known as plebes, are not allowed to go on pass at all. “Going on pass” is pretty much what it sounds like — cadets are given privileges to leave campus for the weekend and they are not required to be back until Sunday night at 7 p.m. The older cadets are, the more pass privileges they are allowed, which means that upperclassmen leave campus on the weekends more often than not. Drinking rules are strict at West Point, and the campus has very strict security, so partying is a challenge.
“Older cadets have high disposable incomes, so there’s been a lot of weekends where we get a hotel room or rent an apartment suite and go out to the bars in Manhattan,” Josh explained.
On the weekends they aren’t in the city, cadets will visit other schools in the area. “We go to Fordham a lot, Marist is fun, I’ve spent a lot of time at Fairfield, and then I try and go visit my friends in Boston as much as possible, because there’s a ton of colleges and universities in the area.”
Josh is from New Jersey, which makes finding people to stay with and people to go out with at other schools easier. Despite his own situation, he maintained that even the cadets from completely different geographical locations around the U.S. will travel to schools in the area without truly knowing anyone, simply because it’s something to do.
And then there’s the dating scene.
“There is a certain type of girl that comes to West Point, and it’s not that they aren’t the kind of girl I’d be interested in, but there’s also so many more guys than girls on this campus,” Josh divulged. Finding girls to hang out with or casually hook up with isn’t easy when “everyone knows everyone.” Gossip is magnified. After all, West Point’s student population is approximately 4,300. Plus, it’s against school rules for upperclassmen to date plebes, and cadet rankings can make inter-school relationships more difficult. Imagine one of those awkward, boss-dating-employee-type-situations, and that’s what it can feel like.
When two cadets decide to date, it’s referred to as “cadating,” Josh said with a snicker. He added that another reason he finds it hard to be romantic with girls at West Point is because relationships can get very serious, very quickly. He doesn’t want to feel locked into a relationship at such a fluid time in his life.
For Josh and his classmates, mobile dating apps like Tinder and Bumble are a perfect way for them to romantically explore outside of West Point. And they definitely explore.
After breaking up with his girlfriend from home his plebe year, Josh got a Tinder during his 2nd year. Since then, he has been an avid user of both Tinder and Bumble. He pointed out that in his experience, and what his friends and classmates have found, a majority of people who frequently use these apps are doing so to cure boredom. “It’s not always about finding someone to hook up with. It’s honestly really fun to talk to strangers, and meet new people.”
Sometimes a hookup is the end game, and for that Josh recommends Tinder. “With both apps, it doesn’t really matter what the guy wants — the girl is in command. That being said, I’ve found that a majority of girls are on Tinder because they’re bored, but some are definitely on to find someone to have sex with, or casually meet up with, and those girls tend to be very straightforward about it. There are more people on Tinder, and it’s great for traveling.” But, he candidly adds, “Bumble has hotter girls.”
“There’s a ton of guys at West Point on Tinder and Bumble, because they don’t ever have the opportunity to meet or even talk to girls, and there’s hardly any girls at West Point.” Josh continued that the cadets live a very regimented life; they go to class all day, they have various duties, and they aren’t allowed the same time allocations that a normal college experience can offer.
Where Josh’s claim could fall short, analytics proves him correct — at the end of 2015, Tinder released analytics on their Top 25 Most “Swiped Right” College Campuses, and for “Campuses with Most Swiped Right Males,” West Point came in at 22nd.
As for other schools in the area, West Point boys match with Marist girls on these apps most often. Josh said that it’s even become a source of amusement, because it’s such a common occurrence among cadets. Why not any other schools? “Of course I match with girls from schools like Mount (St. Mary’s) and Dutchess (Community College), but just like I said there’s a certain type of girl that goes to West Point, there’s a certain type of girl that goes to Marist, and those girls love West Point boys.”
As we consider our own love lives on this Valentine’s Day, it’s also worth considering how different our love lives are now, in part because of mobile dating apps like Tinder and Bumble. For cadets at West Point, these apps have become an important part of how they socialize and market themselves, so to speak. While many are quick to judge Tinder and Bumble for perpetuating hookup culture, it turns out that at campuses like West Point, they are necessary for perpetuating romantic interactions of any capacity.
If that’s not modern love, I’m not sure what is.
