One of my straight (Caucasian) friends of 12 years found his current girlfriend on Tinder. They don't have a whole lot in common besides their sense of humor, which is kinda enough. I don't really care for her, she's a smart ass and unnecessarily sarcastic ALL THE TIME but to each his own. Happy for him because he was single for awhile before meeting her.
I say all that to say its possible, granted there is a difference between straight white people and gay black men on the apps.
But to be honest, apps like Tinder and Jack'd are built around superficiality and meaningless conversations. If you do a google search on mainstream websites discussing Tinder, most call it a "hookup app." I think I only met 3 guys on the app over maybe almost 2 years being on it. None of them led to a second date.
But you're young so you may have a different experience. The app blatantly favors younger people over older people by charging people over 30 years old $10 more for the premium features than users 29 and under.
I do think Angela Yee's advice is correct....to a certain extent. While being social and meeting tons of people with low expectations is always good to do, personally I think the lines are far less blurred for straight people than for gays. When men approach women on apps, its clear what the intentions are: sex or dating. On the gay apps, you have people: Looking for social media followers, using the app just as entertainment when bored with no intentions of meeting ppl, catfishing, say they're looking to date but are really just gay friend collectors, etc. Not to mention the whole Top/Bottom compatibility issue that Straights don't have to worry about.
Anyway, I think I'm back to just meeting ppl in person where I can. That's what worked for me back in the early Discreet City days. It wasn't until I hit that apps that I started comparing myself to the nikkas with the model profile pics who never replied back to messages, taking a dent in my overall confidence.