The use of a dating app called Tinder is growing popular among many TCU students.

According to its Facebook app center page, Tinder works in three steps:

1) Tinder shows you someone nearby it thinks you should know.

2) You can anonymously like this person or skip to the next suggestion.

3) If someone you like happens to like you back, then Tinder makes an introduction & lets you chat within the app.

Tinder, which was created in 2012, pulls basic information from the user’s Facebook account, including age, gender, first name, networks, user ID and friends lists, according to the Facebook app center page.

Once downloaded, the app gives the user the option of setting preferences for which gender they like as well as the distance between them and their matches.

In addition, users choose four Facebook pictures for potential matches to see.

A senior female kinesiology major who preferred to remain anonymous said she thought the app was very shallow in its nature.

“You go off of the way people look, and you only get to see a picture,” she said. “It’s very strange.”

She said she has had the app for about three weeks and has been matched with roughly 30 people.

“I had been matched with this one dude who messaged me ‘You’re sexy like a chocolate covered strawberry,’” she laughed, “and I did not know what to do.”

She said the majority of males who show up on Tinder are high schoolers, men over 30 and TCU students who she recognizes from campus.

The kinesiology major said that she wanted to remain anonymous because she plans on deleting the app soon.

“Guys are getting creepy and more forward, and I don’t care to make small talk with strangers anymore,” she said.

A junior female journalism major who also preferred to remain anonymous said a co-worker recommended the app to her.

She said she finds the app “entertaining” but does not exactly understand its motive.

“It’s pretty much a dating site disguised as a game,” she said. “When you’re matched with someone, it asks you to either chat with them or keep playing.”

She said she has been on two dates since she started using Tinder but was careful when she met up with her matches.

“I told probably five friends I was going. They thought I was going to get abducted,” she said. “But I made sure to meet [the guy] in a well-lit area with lots of people around.”

About half of the men who show up on her Tinder are TCU students, she said.

The journalism major clarified that she preferred to remain anonymous because she thinks people who do not use the app could be judgmental.

Junior history major Ryan Higgins said he thinks Tinder is superficial.

“However, I can understand why some people would use it," he said. "People might be shy and don’t really get out there."

Higgins knows a few students who use Tinder but only women, he said. He added that men do not often talk to each other about things like Tinder.

“I think most people who use it are probably using it for entertainment and curiosity and don’t actually believe something is going to come from it,” he said.

Higgins said he would be intrigued to know if Tinder has ever matched people who develop a successful relationship.

The app is only available for iPhone or iPad, but the Tinder Facebook page said it is working on making a version for Android phones.

To download Tinder, visit the iTunes App Store, or visit the Tinder website.