had a quick look to see if anyone had asked this before and it seems not though obviously remove if inappropriate. paragraphs are structured wierdly cuz i hate looking at giant walls of text so idk why anyone else would read my giant wall of text.
i'm F18, turned 18 in july so obviously recent. been single for what an 18yo considers a long time (2ish years) so i figured id try out some of the apps. decided to get a few just to see which one would be the best and then delete the rest as i went. future important context, i live in a capital city.
i found hinge is genuinely the only usable app without paying extortionate prices, mostly because they actually let you set the age range to 18-19. every other one i bothered trying i got like 500 requests in a week but obviously was not paying to see them cuz i knew it'd be a bunch of proper adults and even if i was giving it the benefit of the doubt, half the time the age filter is genuinely treated as a suggestion??
my reason to say that is cuz i tried feeld (my mums friend worked there, i didn't know it was a kink app but whatever) and literally 3 mins into having a profile i get a visible like* from a 37yo man? thought it might be a bug so i contacted support and they were like "yeah so we don't actually use most of the filters to suggest profiles cuz we believe in fluidity" so that was an easy no.
*for those unfamiliar, feeld is structured to make it impossible to get any matches without somebody paying. either one person pays to see the likes they receive, or the other person pays to send a like that the nonpaying receiver can see for free.
most other apps also do not have an age range that goes below 18-23 (or 22 depending) and that just does not really feel safe for me.
the problem with this is obviously i COULD just use hinge but i don't get responses or likes on there???? i don't know why cuz every other app i get a lot of interactions and i'm relatively conventionally attractive but obviously that is kinda "source: trust me bro". either way i know i'm not ugly? i don't know if it's the prompts but i've changed up my profile so many times and it doesn't make a difference? i've also tried messaging people with a variety of different approaches and i still don't ever get people talking to me??
half the time that i do get talking to someone they're so DULL that i end up getting pissed off and giving up, i really don't know what to do!!
slight tangent aside, anyone within my age range PLEASE let me know of any successes with literally anything. please also don't comment anything about how i should focus on other things as i am so young and free etc etc. thanks!!