When thinking about Tinder, relationships aren’t necessarily the first thing to come to mind. Definitely not serious relationships.

But senior Emily Franks, a public relations and advertising and Spanish double major and Jose Pauletto, a junior international student from Brazil studying information systems, defied the odds. The two met on Tinder in August and have been “officially dating” since November. The DePaulia sat down with Franks and Pauletto to learn more about their story.

The DePaulia: Tell me how you two met.

Emily Franks: We had been talking on Tinder here and there for a while in August, and we had tried to meet up a couple times but it didn’t work out. Finally, in the end of September … we decided to go to Annette’s. We met up after my Spanish class and before his night class, so we only had an hour and a half. It was super casual.  We met at the (Msgr. John Egan) statue after class and I was like, ‘oh OK, he’s way cuter than I thought, and he’s really nice.’

DP: How long had you been using Tinder?

EF: I got Tinder right in the beginning of August, so I had been using it for a month-and-a-half, two months before we met.

DP: Why did you get Tinder?

EF: I had actually had Tinder last year, last summer, my roommate and I both got it …but we had never really met up with people because it wasn’t as popular and as common to meet up. But there was no point, we were both going abroad in the fall. … I remember we were moving out of our apartment (in August), … we were bored and we were like, ‘let’s just download Tinder again,’ so I guess that’s why, just to try it again and see if it was different

Jose Pauletto: It was to practice English and meet new people.

EF: His use of Tinder is very different from the actual use of Tinder for most people.

DP: So you’ve been dating since September?

EF: Yeah, once we started seeing each other at the end of September I deleted the app. I was like, ‘I don’t need this anymore.’ And then we just kept hanging out consistently and then we started officially dating, to put a label on it, right before Thanksgiving, so still pretty new.

DP: Had you come across other people from DePaul before on Tinder?

EF: Oh definitely. I’ve come across people from school. If I know them I would match on purpose and (laugh), or, my phone is filled with so many screenshots of people that I send to my roommate being like, ‘oh my god, look who I just found on Tinder.’ It kind of became a joke.

DP: For a long time online dating has been taboo, do you think Tinder is changing that

EF: I don’t know, I feel like it’s very polarized. People are either all for it or they hate it. … It’s hard to say because some people say, ‘oh I’m just doing this as a joke, it’s just for fun,’ but I feel like deep down, they think they can find someone from it. Based off my experience, OK, (Jose’s) not a typical person you’d find on Tinder. American guys are not using Tinder the way he is. I think it’s great I found him on Tinder, but I don’t think everyone else is going to find success.

DP: Anything else?

EF: I feel like people are very judgmental about it. I feel like everyone finds someone a different way … I mean, what are the chances I would’ve ever met up with him? What’s different from meeting someone on Tinder from meeting someone in a bar? I’ve met a ton of guys at bars and they’re just as scummy as ones you can meet on Tinder. I just feel there’s a big stigma about it, but it’s becoming so ubiquitous that maybe the stigma will go away.