To Tinder on Valentine’s Day, or not to Tinder? We asked a swiping expert

When you’re in a relationship, you have guaranteed Valentine’s Day plans. But when you’re single, Valentine’s Day can be, for lack of a better word, weird. For some reason, everything feels charged. Whether you go out and try to meet someone or stay in, it’s hard to ignore that, well, it’s Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to the l-word. This feeling is especially evident on dating apps like Tinder.

Ah, Tinder. What to do about using Tinder on Valentine’s Day? Should you swipe and message matches like normal, or take the day off? Does using it on Valentine’s Day read as desperate? We spoke with Lane Moore, author of How to Be Alone and host of the popular comedy show Tinder Live (which celebrates its fifth anniversary next month) about using Tinder on Valentine’s Day. For nearly five years now, she’s gone on stage, hooked her phone up to a projector, and let audiences witness her swipes, chats, and hilariously unbelievable interactions with strangers. So yeah, she’s an expert.

We were curious: Is using Tinder on Valentine’s Day a good idea, or a bad idea?

“It depends on your state of mind, Moore told HelloGiggles. “If you go in with a very specific goal and it’s not met, then you could feel like your Valentine’s Day sucked, and that’s not great. But if you go in with the goal of a hookup, I’m pretty sure Tinder is a popular V-Day destination for that.

In theory, you shouldn’t feel any different using Tinder on Valentine’s Day than you do on any other day. Still, it’s sort of hard to ignore that in swiping on Valentine’s Day, you’re trying to meet people on the most romantic day of the year. So, should you acknowledge the calendar?

“I think you kind of have to,” Moore said. “It’d be like swiping on Thanksgiving and being like ‘Hey, what’s up?’ Like, what’s up is that it’s Thanksgiving, and we both know it.”

You might also feel extra pressure to make a connection on Valentine’s Day. But again, you shouldn’t. After you acknowledge the date, just do what you’d normally do and say what you’d normally say. Or, if you want a Valentine’s Day icebreaker, try Moore’s suggestion.

“One of my favorite things to do on Tinder Live is send a random GIF as an opener,” Moore said. “Search the word ‘valentine’ and see what pops up. It’s just an icebreaker, and the weirder the better, IMO.”

There you have it. Using Tinder on Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be A Whole Thing. Just treat it like any other holiday and you’ll be fine. Hey, if it works out, you’ll have a pretty great “how we met” story. And if you do hit it off with someone, make a date to check out Tinder Live on Saturday, February 16th at Littlefield in Brooklyn.