I Spent 24 Hours on BuzzFeed's New Animal Tinder... for Science

Yesterday, BuzzFeed released Cute or Not, a new experimental Tinder-like app where users pass judgement on various pets' adorability. A successor to the infamous Hot or Not and Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook precursor FaceMash—which compared Harvard women to livestock—this wholesome alternative finally gets rid of the humans, bringing the focus entirely to the animals.
  
Since the release, I've been playing around on the app, checking out the animals and trying to hustle my own submission onto the leaderboard.

I don't have a pet, so I borrowed my girlfriend's expressive feline, Baloo, who was the perfect candidate. A rangy little Tabby who still eats kitten food in order to keep the weight on, Baloo isn't aloof and indifferent like other cats, enjoying hanging out with humans, mewing her opinions into the conversation, and having a completely spotless bite and scratch record. She's also the only animal-friend I actually have in New York City, so I didn't have any other options.

As Baloo slowly collected "cutes," I saw one big flaw in the experimental app: no skip button. If you have a horse (or dog) in the race to the most cutes, you're going to be faced with a hard choice if you want to see the next animal. Either you dole out a cute and aid your competitors, or lie and say that cute puppies named Maui are actually filthy gorgons.

This dilemma wears on the soul, frankly. Take note, BuzzFeed.

Baloo's sitting at 38 likes as of my writing. Give her some love if you see her out there in the wild.


Ethan Wolff-Mann is the Deputy Editor at Supercompressor. He loves animals, but unfortunately eats them too. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.