About a week ago I got back from a family trip to California. I met my parents and sister in LA and we went from there to Irvine and San Diego together. It was a great trip.

While we were there though, my mother discovered JSwipe on my phone. For those of you who don’t know what JSwipe is, it’s essentially like Tinder, but for Jews. It’s location-based dating app and also has the same, swipe right to like, swipe left to dislike technology.

Well my mother loves to gamble, specifically she loves slot machines. So for her, “playing” JSwipe is like playing the slots. You swipe right on enough people then maybe you’ll get a “Mazel Tov” and a match. Now, I tried to explain to her that since it’s location based she’s only seeing men in California, but that didn’t stop my mother, “You could move,” “Long distance isn’t that hard.”

Then she starts “playing” my JSwipe for my sister. “This guy is 24, a little too young for you, Michelle, but he would be great for your sister! I’ll like him.” I also tried to explain that it’s just connected to my profile, but that didn’t seem to go through either.

One really positive thing did come out of this “game” though. My parents are beginning to understand how shallow, vain, and difficult it is to date in your twenties in the 21st century. Dating is now all based on a single picture, well at most five REALLY good pictures of you. We, as in my generation, aren’t meeting each other at bars or work or volunteer groups anymore, we’re doing it all online, and we’re constantly looking past the person we’re on a date with to see if there’s someone better. I include myself in this. It isn’t easy finding someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with, let alone someone you want to “swipe right” on for the rest of your life.

While I don’t think this new discovery on dating will change the way that my parents pester me about being single, but it may help them understand a little bit better why that first date didn’t turn into a second.