Human interaction keeps crumbling as Bitmoji become your Tinder wingman

Tinder just announced it’s adding Bitmoji to DMs for users in Canada and Mexico, with plans to launch the feature in the US before the end of the summer.

According to Tinder, the collaboration with Snapchat’s Bitmoji is meant to help people break the ice — without revealing too much info, like your Snapchat details.

Since Tinder doesn’t think you’re smooth with words, Bitmoji gives you some freedom in expressing your personality in a casual and sometimes witty way (which words apparently can’t do).

Your Bitmoji can flirt by tossing a rose into its mouth, offer out drinks by throwing itself into a martini glass, and of course, perform the official mating ritual of millennials, ‘the dab.’ Now who wouldn’t agree to a date after receiving these frisky messages?

Bitmoji, Bitmoji, wherefore art thou Bitmoji?

Is romance dead?

I think Tinder is already quite uncomfortable since it’s pretty much just catalog shopping for your next potential partner with a few subconscious right swipes.

But adding your Bitmoji will make human interaction even easier to avoid. Since Tinder doesn’t allow users to send (dick) pictures within the app, a personalized avatar of you is your only option to visually express yourself. Admittedly, I’d rather receive a Bitmoji than an unsolicited dick pic.

If dick pics were the first step to killing romance, then flirting Bitmoji’s are the final nail in its coffin.

It’s frankly a childish and immature way to flirt. You can hide behind your Bitmoji, just like you hid behind your friend at school, and rely on them to do the flirting for you. I can’t help but be reminded of prepubescent flirting where you’d send notes in class to your crush: ‘Do u fancy me?’

We’re becoming lazy in the dating game. We don’t try mingle with people on our own, instead we outsource it to an app. We don’t try to work out what kind of person we want to meet, we rely on location, a bio, and up to nine relatively random photos to find our soulmates.

Bitmoji could help break the ice when messaging your match on Tinder but it’s not going to hold your hand through your dinner date. You’re on your own there.