Liebe aus dem Internet. Tinder-App als Herausforderung für die pastorale Tätigkeit der Kirche

The contemporary, expansive development of the Internet and all kinds of mobile tools has changed all areas of human life. Food, health, entertainment, work, social and family ties – all this and many other areas of life are woven into virtual reality. This has also affected the way of getting to know the chosen ones in life. The mobile world has been offering many digital dating tools to seek love of one’s life”. One of them is the “Tinder” mobile application. It is this tool that the article examines, first by analyzing the phenomenon of this invention and its popularity in the context of social sciences, then by discussing it in the perspective of pastoral theology. In the sections of the article, the author presents the following issues: what Tinder consists of; the usage statistics for this tool; the philosophical-sociological background of online-dating; the characteristics of the generation of Tinder users and – finally – the challenges and inspirations Tinder presents to the pastoral care of the Church.