"B.C. developer creating app to help disabled and neurodivergent people connect"/ "Pop stars looking for love from fans"

Mar. 12, 2022 "B.C. developer creating app to help disabled and neurodivergent people connect": Today I found this article on CBC news:

A Victoria-based web developer is creating an app for disabled and neuro divergent people to connect, meet and date.

Christie Faye Collins says the app, called NOMI, fills the need for an online space in which people with a disability, for example, can find a partner or friend.

"I want it to be the main app that disabled folks turn to in order to make up for the superficiality and lack of representation in mainstream dating apps," Collins, who has autism, told CBC's All Points West.

"The premise is that disability and neurodivergence is centred and celebrated and the default is disability or neurodivergence, rather than able-bodiedness and neurotypicality like it is in the mainstream dating apps."

Collins said she hasn't had a wonderful experience using dating apps.

"There's no opportunity to really find the humanity of people if you're just looking at photos of face after face and swiping," she said.

She said community is top of mind with NOMI and she has a vision that it will eventually offer workshops and an option for users to form groups with people in their area.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic underscored that need for community and played a big role in the creation of the app, she added.

"I know how important community is for me and how essential it is for me to surround myself with other neurodivergent people who understand my experience," she said.

"I think we realized once the pandemic started how much isolation affects everyone, and especially if you factor in disability." 

Registered psychologist Laura Turnbull agrees that being neurodivergent can be very isolating and says the app is a great idea.

"You don't have to mask yourself or pretend that you're someone else and you don't have to worry so much about how you're going to be perceived by other people because that other person has the same experience," said Turnbull, who has ADHD.

Turnbull says they met their wife, who also has ADHD, on a dating app.

"I got lucky, I was using dating apps back when OkCupid was really detailed and you could write really long posts about yourself," they said.

Collins said NOMI, which is still in the development stage, might resemble other traditional dating apps such as Hinge but will be "highly accessible."

Right now she is looking for other people to get involved, including independent investors and people to help her refine the design. She's encouraging anyone who has feedback to help make the app as accessible as possible to contact her.

"So, anyone who comes from the experience of being neurodivergent or disabled, I would love to collaborate with anyone who comes from that background," she said.

B.C. developer creating app to help disabled and neurodivergent people connect | CBC News

• 1 day ago

As a person in this 'target audience' I'd prefer if the mainstream dating apps just allowed the flexibility to describe these things about yourself - if you chose. A specialized app just seems... icky... like someone with autism can't interact with the greater population? It would be like someone with a disability like being in a wheelchair having a special app just for dating other wheelchair users. It's not healthy...

But really what I've found after trying a few dating apps, is its all about the looks anyway. If you are a super model, people will put up with a lot of mental-circus performances... If you aren't good looking, it really doesn't matter about the rest because no one will talk to you anyway. « less

 

• 1 day ago

neurodivergent !!!!

 

• 1 day ago

Reply to @Terry Viceroy: differently abled!

 

• 1 day ago

Reply to @Angus Mackenzie:
new ministry to follow

 

• 1 day ago

I think this is great but how my mind works is
Is this safe for our vulnerable population?
Do you screen for predators?
Stay safe everyone

Feb. 23, 2022: I found this in my old physical news articles:

Jul. 4, 2015 "Pop stars looking for love from fans": Today I found this article by Mesfin Fekadu in the Edmonton Journal:

NEW YORK — In your quest to find a date, a spouse or a hook-up, you might discover something else when using dating apps: new music.

From Madonna to Mariah Carey, an increasing number of acts are looking to platforms like Tinder and Match to promote their music and reach their fans on the go. 

Madonna’s latest album was advertised on Grindr, an app for gay men, while Jason Derulo looked to Tinder to debut a music video.

Carey launched a profile on Match. com to premiere her music video for the single Infinity and DJ-producer Afrojack recently took over Match’s Twitter account for eight hours to answer questions about love and relationships while promoting his new single, SummerThing!

“You want to go where your fans are, where your potential fans are. And you can’t just promote on iTunes — you’ve got to think of other ways to reach an audience,” said Joel Simkhai, the founder and CEO of Grindr.

Simkhai said Madonna’s team contacted Grindr about collaborating. They launched a contest around Valentine’s Day where users would change their profile photos to mimic the album cover of Rebel Heart — where Madonna’s face is wrapped with wires. Five winners earned a chance to live chat with the pop icon, who released the album in March.

“She was very keen with having chats with actual Grindr users,” Simkhai said. “That was her idea.”

Gay fans have long supported Madonna, who has advocated gay rights for decades. Grindr also worked with Lady Gaga in 2011 when she released Born This Way, even providing a link to iTunes to download the No. 1 hit.

Zedd, the Grammy-winning DJ producer, worked with Tinder to promote his album, True Colors, released last month. While searching for suitors, Tinder users would come across Zedd’s promotional profile and if they swiped right— which means “like”— they could purchase the 25-year-old’s album at a discounted price of $3.99 (it currently costs $7.99 on iTunes).

“Music is something that is so woven into the life of millennials, as is meeting new people, that there’s just an incredible amount of overlap between the two,” said Phil Schwartz, Tinder’s head of marketing. 

“Tinder’s always been talked about as a social discovery app, and I think this is more evidence that this is true.”

“Tinder is where millennials are, and if you combine that with the fact that the platform is highly, highly engaging, you have something really, really powerful,” he said.

Tinder or Interscope Records, Zedd’s label, wouldn’t say how many albums sold on Tinder, but the sales from the app counted toward the 39,000 copies True Colors pushed in its first week, helping it debut at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Schwartz said 85 per cent of Tinder users are between the ages 18 and 34, and the average user spends about 11 minutes on the app each day — one of the main reasons Derulo launched the video for Want to Want Me, a Top 5 hit, on Tinder.

“I see this app as the wave of the future. I know my fans will swipe right,” Derulo said.

PlentyofFish also worked with Derulo when the website appeared in the music video for his song Ridin Solo in 2010. The dating service also appeared in videos by Britney Spears, Flo Rida and Kesha. In addition to finding a place in Gaga’s Telephone video, PlentyofFish worked with the star during a U.S. tour, giving fans a chance to win tickets and backstage passes.

Other artists also have found ways to work with dating apps: Hilary Duff, a regular Tinder user for real dates, used the app’s interface in her latest music video, and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst is the director behind recent commercials for eHarmony, the dating service.

Grindr — which has two million active daily users — said the company’s success with music partnerships is leading to more work this summer. After collaborating with Madonna, who has a deal with Live Nation, Grindr is continuing to work with the concert promoter and is expected to launch campaigns with Nicki Minaj and Idina Menzel.

“This is a win-win for us. Our users are very interested in music, very interested in entertainment,” Grindr’s Simkhai said.

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