In an interesting turn of events, TikTok user @Istilllovestuartlittle has gone viral after revealing that she matched with her 8th-grade history teacher on Tinder. This viral video has garnered many mixed feelings from different commenters.
https://www.tiktok.com/@istilllovestuartlittle/video/7020807444792233221?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id6997060490544219654
In the video, she censors where the man is from and also his face, but it is clear that the bio says he works in “education.” Additionally, the caption reads “and he’s def lying about his age.” Though she posted the video jokingly, probably not expecting the video to reach over 1 million views and over 300 thousand likes, many are concerned and find this inappropriate. One person wondered why his age range would be so low, to which the TikToker agreed. Other people, however, did not find this as concerning and also seemed to hint that they wish they would have matched with former middle school teachers. One commenter says “I was gonna comment ‘the dream’ and then saw the comments.” Others agreed with this comment in the replies.
Instead of blaming the former school teacher for having his range so low, many seemed to flip the tables and wonder why she would set her range so high. However, many pointed out that the caption did note that she believed he was lying about her age. Some commentators worried for the TikToker herself, as they were worried that she would pursue him since she matched with him. However, she assured her viewers that she had immediately unmatched with him.
Concerningly, others seemed to prove that this was not a one-time thing or a rare thing. Many noted their experiences with matching with former teachers or even with a current teacher. One person writes “I matched with my teacher while I still had him. I was so freaked out.” Though some people seem to think it is their dream to match with former teachers they might have nursed a crush on, others note that there would be a serious power imbalance with dating a former teacher, specifically due to the age gap.
