Even with about 20,000 students, it can still be difficult to meet new people at UNF. Between homework, working a job, hanging out with friends and finding time to sleep, there’s not much time left for dating. However, UNF students have been using Tinder and other dating apps as a way to easily communicate with new people without taking too much attention from daily life.

Many students have had success with Tinder and are happily in relationships. However, there are some that have had experiences on Tinder so unsettling that they refuse to use the app ever again. The uncertainty of Tinder dating is what makes it so exciting and entertaining, but it is also what makes it unsafe and controversial. Here are a few true stories from fellow Ospreys that may make you think twice about engaging in a Tinder relationship.

“Shots Fired”

I drove East to Pompano beach to meet this girl out in public for the first time. This girl that I was going to meet lived on the dividing line between the project-like part of the area and the wealthy side. She seemed really chill after we hung out for a while and she invited me to come over. I thought it would be okay to go back to her house because she was chill, and her parents weren’t home either.

We got back to her house, and we had not been inside the house for very long before we both started hearing gunshots in the distance. She told me not to worry and that things like that happened all the time. All of a sudden bullets flew through her window. I remember seeing tons of cop cars show up. Apparently a massive gang fight was going on right outside her front door. We zoomed out of the house as fast as possible, passing cops that were blocking off certain roads.

“Don’t Look Down”

This was my very first Tinder date ever,  and it was our first time meeting each other in person. We picked a public place to meet at the mall. The guy was in the Navy and totally ripped, and everything seemed to be going great. A little awkward at times, but he was sweet.

He wanted to take me out on a date that following Friday and insisted that he go pick out an outfit from Banana Republic to wear on the date. He  picks out an outfit, and when he realizes I am not following him into the fitting room, he looks at me strangely and asks that I come in the changing room with him. I was just thinking in my head, “who does this on a first date?” but I agreed anyway.

He undresses until he only has on neon orange underwear,  facing away from me and I just awkwardly stare at myself in the mirror. Just for a moment I glanced down  and out of the corner of my eye I saw in the mirror a massive, fresh poop stain. He was trying to act big and bad, but the massive poop stain completely diminished his manliness.

“Wait, Who?”

So, two years ago, my friend Denise from my choir class messaged me. She’s kind of a sorority girl who likes the “whale-clothing” guys wear, like the simply southern stuff. Well, she dates older guys and swiped right on a picture of this guy and matched with him. Turns out, this was my brother’s tinder profile that he should not have had since he was in an active relationship. The weirdest part was that the only picture he had on his profile was a picture of me, him, and my mom that was professionally taken at my grandma’s third wedding…in a row.

“Paparazzi”   

I drove 35 minutes to Georgia from Jacksonville to see this dude on Tinder I had been snap chatting for two weeks. When I get there, we go to this beach town and all of a sudden he starts obsessively taking photos of me with a professional camera.  I was not liking it at all. Especially because he was taking pictures of me as I was doing normal things like eating.

I did not contact him again after that date, and a little while after I started ghosting him he starts posting about me on social media like Snapchat and Instagram calling me “Casper the friendly ghost” and he continued to post the photographs he took of me. I had to block him eventually, because he started to get angry and it was weird.

“And…Scene.”

I was in my friends dorm when she invites a guy she met on tinder to come chill with us. I got some creepy vibes from him and left. I was chilling in my dorm when my friend called me because she was also got the creeper vibes and asked for help getting out of the uncomfortable situation.

In order to help my friend, I had an idea.  I had the idea of acting like I had an emergency situation that my friend had to help me with at that moment, in order to get her out of the room. I knocked on her door and pretended to be upset and crying and she had no idea that there was no actual emergency, which made her go along with it even more! She asked the dude to leave in order to help me out, but before she could say anything the guy full sprinted out of the dorm. So weird, but I was proud of my acting skills that day. She never spoke with the guy again.

“Sugar daddy?”

My friends took my phone when I wasn’t paying attention and swiped right on everyone, so I had like 50 new matches. One of my friends started messaging people as me, I was gonna unmatch them anyway so I didn’t really care at this point.

Anyway, this older guy just really wanted to buy me stuff. His name is Rob, he lives like 342 miles away and he bought me a hammock. I still use the hammock to this day!

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Do you have a Tinder horror story? Tell us about it in the comments!  For more information, if you have a news tip, if you see an error in this story or have any compliments or concerns, contact editor@unfspinnaker.com.