To swipe or not to swipe? On Thursday night as part of Sex Week, the Social Justice Center co-hosted “Love at First Swipe: Tinder Culture and College Sexuality,” a Java & Justice Session.

Around 20 students attended the discussion, which centered around how Washington University students use Tinder and how talking on the app compares to meeting people in face-to-face interaction. The event was discussion-based, with moderators and organizers providing prompts and information for the attendees to address.

Conversations covered a range of topics, from the implications of a simple yes-or-no binary when judging others based on physical attraction to whether Tinder should be considered empowering for women. Other discussion topics included whether Tinder creates long-term relationships and if the app leads to safer or more dangerous dating.

“The idea that social media depersonalizes personal interaction has been long debated and discussed,” sophomore Divya Babbula, one of the student organizers, said. “Social media doesn’t change the way people date but instead reinforces the established social practices of dating that have been in place long before the advent of dating apps.”

During the discussion, the SJC showed a video of data taken from the dating services Are You Interested and OKCupid. The data from Are You Interested showed that men responded three times as much to women as women did to men. Men in general responded most to Asian women, except for Asian men, who responded most to Latina women.

Additionally, the data from OKCupid showed that black women were the least-responded-to group, with only one out of 2.9 men responding to them, while Middle Eastern women were the most-responded-to demographic, with one out of two men responding. South Asian men had the lowest response rate, with one out of every 4.8 women responding to them.

Senior Sam Ligeti does not have a Tinder but wanted to learn more about how the app and others like it affect the dating experience.

“I feel like I want to push myself because I do school so much—I don’t go to enough thought-provoking kinds of things,” Ligeti said. “This was a time where I was going to do something cerebral.”

After watching the video, she said she was more interested in what the data reflected about society as a whole.

“It was kind of provoking,” Ligeti added. “I wish that we had talked about it after, but nobody really said anything about it. I just want to know more statistics, honestly. I didn’t know where it was coming from.”

Junior Brian Benton, a Tinder user himself, wanted to see how the Social Justice Center would add a new perspective to a common issue.

“I’ve heard a lot about Java & Justice events and other things the Social Justice Center has put on, and with it being Sex Week, it seemed like a relevant one to go to,” Benton said.

The discussion was part of Sex Week 2015, an annual series of events put on by Student Health Services about sex and sexuality in college. Other events in Sex Week included “HIV and STI 101,” “LGBTQIA Sex in the Dark” and “Kinking it up and Tying it down.” Sex Week organizers were unavailable for comment.