Un(Hinge)d: A Guide to Perfecting your Prompts and Opening Lines

Mar 195 min read

Feeling like Andie Anderson the way I act completely insane and men are still into me

By: Shelby Hickman

Credit: Shelby Hickman

Whoever said there are plenty of fish in the sea is a bold-faced liar.

Unless you’re looking for a 5-foot 7, prematurely balding fish that only Snapchats you ‘WYD’ at 3 a.m. (sleeping jackass, and you should be, too), the Gainesville dating scene is an empty backyard swimming pool.

What’s a girl gotta do to find a 6-foot 5, intelligent and funny fish that worships the ground she walks on? If anyone knows, holla at ya girl, but for now I guess I’ll stick to swiping on Hinge.

Without further ado, I bring to you the rowdiest lines that my friends and I have said to men and our Hinge profile prompts–complete with a breakdown of why they were or were not effective. For transparency purposes, I feel I must let you all know that I have probably convinced half of the town that I should be institutionalized for the sake of this article. But hey, anything for a good story.

The Tried and True

Opening Line: “Bicep 😸 I mean hi!!!”

Stole this one from my friend (shoutout Riley) and it has not failed me yet. I love scenarios that allow me to use this one because they’re a win-win: I get to look at a yummy bicep, and he gets an ego boost.

This works as a prompt as well! Give “I go crazy for… bicep” a try. The stereotypical response is “good news I have 2.” Like yes king that is good news, I love more surface area!

Prompt: Together we could… do the 9/9/9 challenge

This is for all my baseball girlies. If you’re unfamiliar, the 9/9/9 challenge is eating nine hot dogs and drinking nine beers during, you guessed it, nine innings of a baseball game. This one has been working quite well for me in terms of response rate, even though I have zero faith in my ability to complete this challenge.

Prompt: One thing I would love to know about you is… what you call your grandparents

The response rate is great and it’s such an interesting topic in my opinion. I call my grandparents MomMom and PopPop (pronounced more like mum-um and pup-up) which is apparently abnormal to most, but commonspeak in southern Delaware where I’m from. I’ve found that some people call their grandparents names related to their heritage, such as Noni or Nonna, for Italians. This is a great way to start a conversation about someone's background and maybe find some common ground.

The Ken Doll

We’ve all met a Ken Doll at least once in our lives. They’re conventionally attractive, a little dumb and upon first impression, make you feel like you’re talking to a brick wall. These are the kind of guys who think it's really funny to put the same response to all three prompts. I’m not sure if they genuinely believe that this is a good use of their prompts or they’re just boring, but sometimes this method can be effective. For example, I stumbled upon Bryan whose unusual skill is sleeping, simple pleasure is sleeping and this year he really wants to, you guessed it, sleep. So naturally I said, “I could be wrong but I have a feeling you wanna sleep.” In response to this he said “yeah, with you.” Well played Bryan, well played.

She Shoots… She Misses

In response to a man's prompt about having a Costco card, I naturally said “THIS GETS 5 BIG BOOMS 💥💥💥💥💥.” We did not match. AJ, Big Justice and the Rizzler would be quite disappointed in you, Kevin.

Christian said “first round is on me if… do a flip.” I told him I could do a mediocre somersault and to take it or leave it. Guess he decided to leave it. Go date Livvy Dunne if you want an acrobat.

I once messaged a guy “hey I have a question.” I did not in fact have a question, I just wanted to see if this was intriguing enough for him to match with me. It wasn’t.

Do’s and Don’ts of Hinge Dating in College

Do: Say something rather than just send a like

I’m much more compelled to answer if I’m sent a message rather than a like because I have something to respond to. It can get the conversation going quicker and help to avoid some of the unnecessary small talk.

Don’t: Say something weird and sexual

Do I even need to explain this one?

Do: Be genuine

Just be yourself. It’s that simple.

Don’t: Be overbearing in your first impression

Nothing gives me the ick more easily than receiving a novel as a first message. Baby, you do not need to give me your whole life story in response to a photo of my dog. Instead, just try something simple like ‘cute dog, what's their name?’ Side note: my dog's name is Cheddar. She’s a corgi and I love her as if I gave birth to her myself.

Do: Suggest a plan

Try something like ‘hey, I would love to take you out for dinner/drinks, do you have a favorite bar/restaurant?’ This is effective because it not only shows that you have a real interest in getting to know someone, but also creates discussion about each other's favorite spots in order to figure out where to go.

Don’t: Invite a girl over at 2 a.m. to ‘watch a movie’

For one, if you’re serious about getting to know someone, hang out with them during regular business hours. Also, how can you get to know someone if you're sitting in silence staring at a TV for two hours?

Do: Ask for the phone number

I repeat. Ask. For. The. Phone. Number.

From my experience, this is a much better way of contacting someone. There’s no pressure to try and take a cute selfie to respond with or the risk of forgetting about the conversation (see below).

Don’t: Ask for the Snapchat

If you’re asking for my Snapchat I’m going to assume you never matured past middle school. C’mon guys, let's be brave and text like grown ups!

I’ve found that it’s so difficult to hold a conversation over Snapchat, especially when you’re first getting to know someone. Not only can you no longer see the message you previously sent and could forget what you said, but if one party takes awhile to respond the conversation is essentially over because you’ve both forgotten about it.

Let’s Go Swimming!

Now that I have armed you with all my tips, tricks and how-to’s, it’s time to dive into the dating pool. Whether you’re new to dating apps, a Hinge warrior looking for some new lines or in a happy relationship and need a good laugh at the current state of the dating scene, I hope you found this useful. Happy swiping!

Shelby Hickman is a third year sports and media journalism student minoring in public relations. She loves football, Mexican food and her corgi, Cheddar, amongst many other things. She is a hopeless romantic who dreams of finding her happily ever after and despite her cynicism, is still looking for her Prince Charming.