“Story time!” TikTok creator Madi Hart exclaims in a recent video.
“I used my Hinge profile to get a bunch of people registered to vote in Pennsylvania.”
Hart lives in Los Angeles, where she works on the creative team for a nonpartisan organization called FutureVoice, aiming to improve civic engagement among Gen Z.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to get involved, like I’ve been wanting to do something like phone banking, but… nobody answers the phone anymore,” she continued in her video. “So what is the freaking Gen Z equivalent to phone banking? Using your dating apps to talk to people about voting.”
Hart went on to share some examples of her dating app escapades.
First, she set her location to a swing state (in this case, Pennsylvania), and answered some of Hinge’s profile prompts with voter-specific responses, like “This year I want to… convince someone to register to vote — and then fall in love.”
From there, she lured her matches in with “thirst traps,” (it should be noted that she used real images of herself, as well as her real name), and then had a number of insightful conversations about voter registration.
As it turns out, it’s all part of a bigger strategy.
Hart, alongside another content creator, Georgia Bridgers, hosted an event in Los Angeles called “Make Dating Apps Useful Again,” where they trained other volunteers to do the same thing — all while sipping drinks and streaming the vice presidential debate Tuesday night.
“We’re trying something a little differently,” the digital invite for the event read. “We’re tapping into your peer-to-peer conversations on dating apps to include discussions on civic engagement and documenting our process on TikTok.”
While it’s not clear how many attended the event, both creators have gotten a warm response on their respective TikTok videos.
Bridgers, who is a lesbian in a committed relationship, started her video by saying that “Hinge has been the last thing on my mind for quite some time now.”
But then, she introduced herself as “straight Georgia,” whose Hinge prompts include “I’m convinced that… the sexiest thing you can do is vote.”
She went on to share that she was pleasantly surprised that most of her matches already had voting plans, so she decided to only match with men who had the label “not political” in their bios.
Quickly, her work took on a new energy, with messages telling suitors “I think it’s super important to vote. If not for us, then for the safety of future generations.”
One by one, they got on board, some even sending proof of registration in messages.
“I didn’t know it takes literally three minutes online,” one of her matches said, accompanied by a laughing emoji.
The creators did not share whether they revealed their true intentions or identities to their matches after confirming their voting plans, though this did not seem to deter their viewers.
Comments poured in, calling Bridgers “iconic,” and some organizing plans to re-download the apps for this same mission.
Bridgers and Hart were not in the business of telling their romantic interests how to vote, but rather, just wanted to make sure that they did. This is aligned with FutureVoice’s stated mission: “Addressing attitudinal barriers and galvanizing young Americans to be protagonists in civic life.”
“Research shows that Gen Z and young millennials share a common and unique set of values that transcend partisanship,” the organization’s website reads.
“A significant majority believe that [the] government must do more to protect the vulnerable, invest in children and families, and fight climate change. Their resolve to address these issues has only strengthened in recent years. And without them, we wouldn’t have had the major policy wins America’s seen over the last century.”
To keep up that momentum, leaders like Bridgers and Hart get to have a little fun, spreading the call to action among their peers.
“This is the only time I’ve had fun and been fulfilled by using a dating app in the last three years. I highly recommend doing this,” Hart ended her video.
“Voting is not perfect at all, of course. But it’s one thing that you can do, and I think it’s worthwhile. And this was really entertaining.”
Header images courtesy of Madi Hart/TikTok