"...Hinge offers the slightly radical prospect of getting to know someone. "
When everyone appears to have arrived in Newcastle with a friendship group sorted, you may find yourself turning to Hinge for emergency social survival. Having been freshly deposited into the rituals of flat shag lists and norms of one-night stands, Hinge offers the slightly radical prospect of getting to know someone.
This is Hinge at its most convincing fantasy: getting you out to the pub and meeting matches. British Vogue recently described New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and artist Rama Duwaji’s relationship as a rare dose of “hetero-optimism”. The couple matched on Hinge in 2021, married last year and have since become unlikely poster children for the possibility that dating apps may occasionally produce something resembling a love story. Mamdani has even joked that “there is still hope in those apps”.
On a Tuesday night out in Jesmond, however, the Hinge fairytale can feel considerably less convincing. There are the serial daters of Jesmond and Ouseburn, the performative male Olympics, explicit voice notes, and men whose entire personality appears to be that they own a dog. Perhaps Hinge isn’t creating the chaos so much as providing a particularly efficient platform for it.
"Unsurprisingly, much of the horror story behind Hinge has a distinctly male cast."
Unsurprisingly, much of the horror story behind Hinge has a distinctly male cast. Women who date men often navigate unsolicited sexual messages, misleading ages, violent threats and the perennial uncertainty over whether a date is simply a date or an elaborate route back to his flat. A 2025 Guardian report on a US lawsuit claimed that parent company Match Group allowed known sexual abusers, including Stephen Matthews, to remain on Tinder and Hinge after being reported, creating a “breeding ground” for sexual predators.
The problem is not only who uses these apps, but who they are built around. Mainstream dating platforms have historically been optimised around straight cisgender users, leaving queer users to navigate some of the same assumptions of heterosexual dating culture.
"Hinge might be filling the gap left by the disappearance of third spaces in Newcastle, but that connection is also what it monetises."
Hinge might be filling the gap left by the disappearance of third spaces in Newcastle, but that connection is also what it monetises. Under Match Group, Hinge operates within what Nick Srnicek calls “platform capitalism”, essentially turning our search for connection into a commercial ecosystem. For an app “designed to be deleted”, there is an obvious incentive to keep us swiping.
Perhaps Mamdani is right, maybe there is hope in Hinge. Hope, however, is a seemingly profitable business.