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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Technology
Tom Gill

‘There’s a gay bar in my pocket!’: how 15 years of Grindr has affected gay communities and dating culture

Grindr George Arison Carrie Bradshaw George Lucas Stanford Blatch United States Taliban
App icon of Grindr displayed in the App Store on a phone backdropped by cropped waving flag of the LGBT
Grindr says 43% of its users are looking for relationships and 61% aim to make friends. Photograph: Andre M Chang/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

One of pop culture’s early but most seminal depictions of gay online dating comes from a 1999 episode of Sex and the City. Stanford Blatch, Carrie Bradshaw’s gay friend, played by the late Willie Garson, is seeking advice. He’s been chatting to another man on an online chatroom – the height of technology at the time – and wonders whether they should meet up.

“What do you know about him?” asks Bradshaw. “Well, his name is bigtool4u” answers Blatch – cue hysterics from Bradshaw. Fast forward 25 years and although the tools are different, the activity is, arguably, much the same. Instead of online chatrooms, one of the most popular means of gay and bisexual men around the world connecting with each other is Grindr, which has 13 million monthly active users worldwide.

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