Alex is 27 years old. The guy lives in or possess the means to access a home with an enormous home and stone counters.
I have seen his face a large number of days, usually with similar expression—stoic, material, smirking. Absolutely identical to that of the Mona Lisa, plus horn-rimmed glasses. The majority of times, their Tinder visibility have six or seven photo, and in every one, the guy reclines resistant to the exact same immaculate kitchen area table with one knee crossed softly on the various other. His present is actually the same; the position in the image try the same; the coif of their hair is the same. Best their garments change: blue suit, black colored suit, reddish flannel. Rose blazer, navy V-neck, double-breasted parka. Face and the entire body suspended, he swaps clothes like a paper doll. He or she is Alex, he is 27, he is in his cooking area, he or she is in a pleasant top. He or she is Alex, they are 27, he’s in his cooking area, he or she is in a nice clothing.
I’ve usually swiped left (for “no”) on his profile—no offense, Alex—which should apparently inform Tinder’s formula that I would not like to see him again. But I nonetheless look for Alex on Tinder 
one or more times 30 days. The most recent opportunity I watched your, I read his visibility for several minutes and jumped when I observed one manifestation of life: a cookie container designed like a French bulldog appearing following disappearing from behind Alex’s right elbow.
I’m not the only one. When I requested on Twitter whether people had observed him, dozens said yes. One lady replied, “I reside in BOSTON while having nonetheless viewed this people on check outs to [New York City].” And evidently, Alex is not an isolated circumstances. Similar mythological numbers bring popped upwards in local dating-app ecosystems nationwide, respawning everytime they’re swiped away.
On Reddit, men usually grumble about the robot records on Tinder that feature super-beautiful women and grow to be “follower scams” or advertisements for person sexcam solutions. But men like Alex commonly spiders. They’re genuine men, gaming the device, becoming—whether they understand they or not—key figures inside myths of the towns’ electronic heritage. Like the net, they might be confounding and terrifying and slightly passionate. Like mayors and well-known bodega kittens, they are both hyper-local and bigger than lifetime.
In January, Alex’s Tinder reputation relocated off-platform, due to the brand new York–based comedian Lane Moore.
Moore hosts a month-to-month entertaining stage tv show labeled as Tinder alive, where a gathering support the lady see schedules by voting on exactly who she swipes close to. During final month’s reveal, Alex’s visibility emerged, and at minimum several men and women stated they’d observed him earlier. They all respected the counter tops and, definitely, the posture. Moore explained the show try amusing because using internet dating applications try “lonely and complicated,” but with them together try a bonding experiences. Alex, in a manner, showed the concept. (Moore matched up with him, however when she tried to query your about their kitchen, the guy offered merely terse responses, so that the show must move forward.)
When I at long last talked with Alex Hammerli, 27, it wasn’t on Tinder. It had been through myspace Messenger, after a member of a Twitter team work by The Ringer sent myself a screenshot of Hammerli bragging that their Tinder visibility would definitely find yourself on a billboard in occasions Square.
In 2014, Hammerli explained, the guy watched men on Tumblr posing in a penthouse that neglected middle Park—over as well as, similar pose, modifying only his clothes. The guy enjoyed the idea, and begun getting photo and posting all of them on Instagram, in an effort to preserve his “amazing wardrobe” for posterity. The guy submitted all of them on Tinder for the first time during the early 2017, generally because those are the images he’d of himself. They will have worked for him, he mentioned. “A lot of women are like, ‘I swiped for your home.’ Some are like, ‘When may I are available more than and become put on that countertop?’”