Conclusion

Throughout this research process a lot of information was gained and received. It is incredibly important to study and interpret the differing ways in which people utilize technology within our society, especially when it pertains to online dating. This new realm of possibilities and affordances opens our eyes to the ways in which technology is quickly blending in with our real world lives. Very quickly we have seen the cohesion of offline and online worlds and dating sites are specifically of interest because such intimate interactions as meeting and getting to know a new romantic partner can now be done entirely online.

The information extracted through my research helps us understand the new ways in which young college students participate in hook up and romantic online structures. By understanding this sociologists are able to better grasp the ways in which human connections, particularly romantic ones, are formed online. While I did uncover a lot of positive aspects of Tinder, I certainly learned the hindrances it has too. At the end of the day every respondent I spoke to expressed that the connections between the person they were speaking to online would be much more meaningful if handled in person. Thus while Tinder makes these interactions easier and more efficient there is still a noticeable element of human to human contact that is sorely missed. While apps like Tinder have grown increasingly popular, it should be noted that this is not the inevitable direction of dating in the twenty first century as far as I can see.

A draw back for this study is that it only looks at those who are capable of creating a profile. The demographic is limited to smart phone users who also have Facebook which may limit people that are not able to have cross-media profiles. It also leaves out people who have access to other dating sites that can be accessed only online because the application is something you can primarily use on your phone. Tinder is only compatible with those who have smart phones which leaves out a large section of the population that have access to wifi but not a smart phone. Lastly, studies on the app need to focus on a larger range of demographics. Right now most of the research I found was on generic users or mainly male users but I have not come across something that focuses on, say, the female gender and the differences between male and female Tinder users. Additionally race was never discussed in any outside literature I found and was not considered as a factor when conducting research. It may be interesting to conduct a study where users were compared across race, and or if race was a factor in deciding wether to swipe left or right. Since the application is fairly young there is still much room more improvement on additional research.

Data/Results

In this section I will talk about the data I collected through the interviews and questionnaires and highlight interesting or important responses. The question that afforded me the most information during this process was “How does Tinder ease or create more anxiety during online interactions/meeting new people.” When speaking of the four respondents I interviewed they all had very similar responses. In order not to confuse who said what the people I spoke to were Hank, Danny, Bri and Kailey. Danny was the only respondent that had not had a long-term relationship start on Tinder and Bri and Hank were the two homosexual respondents I spoke with. Bri notes:

“Tinder makes it easier to talk with a person without fear of being embarrassed in public. It’s also easier to end a conversion knowing that you will probably never meet that person offline. If you do go on a date with someone from Tinder it’s nice knowing that you communicated beforehand and know a little about them.”

Other respondents had similar responses, particularly claiming that Tinder made it easier to meet new people and talk to those they normally would not have the confidence to speak to in real life. This online realm allowed them to feel validated as well as get to know someone before potentially meeting them offline. This mediation allows for a unique connection with potential mates. When you are able to meet them online first you can get to know them and see if they are worth meeting in offline settings. This correlates directly with my outside literature research, particularly when talked about LeFabvre, who believes that it is incredibly special and unique to have this type of mediation before meeting in real life, (LeFabvre,10). Kailey, when answering the same question as above offered this;

“Like I mentioned earlier, the option of it being casual, and being honest about what you’re looking for makes it a lot easier than in real life, when you need to guess if someone is just being nice, or if they’re interested.”

Her response directly correlates again with the findings of LeFabvre and what I spoke about within the literature review. Another affordance of Tinder is the validation you get from knowing someone likes you. Through the unique style of the app you do not have to guess who does and does not like you as you would in real life. Kailey goes on to talk about what is easy while using the app, stating

“Its really easy for me, at least, to see if I have chemistry with someone. If the conversation is slow it usually sizzles out. If its interesting and I look forward to talking to the person, I know its going well.”

Two of the other respondents I spoke with had the same ease while using the app. Danny and Bri both expressed that the conversational element of the application made it easy to see if someone had potential of meeting in an offline setting. Being able to do this, for the users I spoke with, made making connections with others actually easier. However, it is hard to say if these connections are more meaningful than face-to-face interaction. It can become increasingly easier to dismiss a potential mate due to what is said over textual conversations; conversations that can often get misinterpreted simply because it is mediated and not in real life. If those conversations happened in real life you would be able to read body language and facial expressions as well which give those interacting more information of what the other is saying. Along with that, face-to-face interactions can create more meaning than simply talking with someone online. Through the selection process you are immediately aware that they chose to speak to you because of your looks and nothing else. This can have the potential for creating superficial relationships that are based around looks more than anything else.

Another important topic discussed in the interviews revolved around identity formation. All four respondents had perosnal experience with meeting someone offline and having them appear not as they did online. Although Tinder has to be linked with your facebook page which allows for more authenticity all four respondents stated that they clearly chose only attractive or flattering pictures for their profile. In one case, Bri used a funny photo of herself making odd faces in order to display her silly side to potential mates.

“I figured I might as well have a goofy picture up there. I like to have fun and enjoy myself and I make these faces all the time so it only made sense to put it on my profile. Also I think its hilarious when girls have similar photos like that, I think it makes them appear more real so I figured I might as well. Honestly I have had conversations with people directly about that photo I uploaded so it really only helped me chances (giggles).”

By creating an online identity that is the ideal version of you there are certainly some affordances. As Bri mentioned above, those pictures can serve as an authentic outlet for who you are. It is also interesting to note that instead of only using pretty pictures of herself to attract mates, in this case she used an unflattering one purposefully. This correlates with Boyd’s findings that “By looking at others’ profiles, teens get a sense of what types of presentations are socially appropriate; others’ profiles provide critical cues about what to present on their own profile,”(Boyd,128). She specifically selected that photo because she had seen it on someone else page and saw it as socially acceptable and likable so she incorporated the same into her profile.

Hank provided a unique look into the world of gay users on Tinder and expressed some concern over the difference in online and offline identity. He claimed that it was hard to find someone sometime that was authentic to their profile, another hinderance of Tinder is you cannot get a 100% accurate read on someone before you meet them face-to-face. As I mentioned in the literature review, Hank expressed that you cannot judge things like the persons smell or how they carry themselves through online settings. So there definitely were some awkward first dates with no intention on reaching out again. Both Bri and Hank stated that Tinder specifically made it a lot easier for them to find mates. Navigating the gay dating world can be incredibly difficult, finding people that you know are also gay is not as simple as it may seem. Bri claimed:

“The great thing about Tinder for me as a lesbian, is that I know who likes who. You get to select if you want to see girls only or boys only and when I sift through the pictures I know all of these girls also like girls. Its so much easier than trying to find gay girls anywhere else, its always awkward when you try to talk to someone only to find out they aren’t gay.”

Hank expressed the same thing and went on further to explain that it opens the dating pool greatly. Now instead of trying to guess who is and who isn’t gay he is able to select a potential partner from a pool of people with the same sexual orientation. This is an incredible affordance for the gay community and is certainly shaping future interactions for these people. They both expressed how much easier and less anxious they were when they were using the app to talk to others.

When talking about the three out of the four respondents that have long-term relationships start on Tinder I found no significant data. They all stated that their intentions were to find hook ups or dates and that they were not searching for a long lasting partner initially. However only after they met face-to-face did the respondents express that they knew they had more intentions with that person than just hooking up. No one claimed that Tinder afforded them any extra help in finding a partner other than the obvious ones (that they would not have met if it weren’t for the app). When Kailey described her first interactions with her partners she stated:

“When we first met in person he was very nerdy looking, but he was sweet and funny. We really seemed to connect and have a lot in common, which is why we continued to see each other….We spoke with each other online for about a week before we met in person and this really helped me get to know him and figure out whether or not I was seriously interested.”

Most respondents had great first dates with their current partner and that is what most influenced them to begin dating. However all four respondents said that it was easier and less awkward when they met the first time in person because they already had a sense of who the other person was through the small talk to engaged in online. However, being able to speak and get to know one another online is certainly less personal and more of a superficial interaction which may lead to a boring first date since you already know so much about each other. This was not present in my findings or the literature I read but it is something that I have personally experience before.

 

Methods

For this paper I decided to do a number of different methods to collect data. I began to use the app to familiarize myself with what different features it has, what types of people might be using it and what it is like to have a casual conversation on it. However, I did not spend too much time using the app myself, since I did not have serious intent of meeting people on it my own findings would not be helpful for understanding how youths use it to create relationships or hook ups.

I interviewed four UO students, using the interview questions posted below I conducted about 30 minute interviews with each respondent. For anonymity purposes I will only display their first names. Two of the respondents were female and the other two were male; three out of the four had found their current mate while using the app. While that was not a criteria I was looking for when selecting my respondents (in other words I did not express a need to talk to people who found mates on the app), it was an interesting coincidence that most of them had found a partner while using Tinder. Two out of the four respondents were also gay, one male and one female who both found partners online. As I will discuss further this element of my research helped me understand in much greater detail the affordances given to specifically gay people that use Tinder.

I also sent my interview questions out to a number of people that expressed interest in being a part of my study. This allowed me to collect more data from people that did not live in this state. Four more respondents were selected using this impersonal form of interviewing- I sent them the questions online, they wrote out their answers and sent it back to me. Lastly, I utilized literature I found online to help me better understand the usage of Tinder through a sociological perspective. The four pieces of research I selected from outside sources will be the bases from which I analyze my interviews.

Literature Review #8- LeFebvre

Swiping me off my feet: Explicating relationship initiation on Tinder

Leah LeFebvre

LeFebvre looks into the formation of hook-ups and relationships via the heavily mediated space of Tinder. The great thing about this research is that he directly exposes the methods that go into creating and selecting a mate of Tinder. As we have clearly talked about before, “Attraction relied on pictures and bios,” which is a unique feature of the Tinder app specifically (LeFebvre,15). Using what this author calls the “playing cards method” Tinder’s features have you swipe through a stack of photos, selecting potential mates based on the mediated criteria you entered. This means that the pictures that surface are filtered by the age, gender and location you selected when creating your profile. This affordance is something that is completely unique to online dating- you are able to choose criteria of potential mates before even speaking to them. In offline spaces you have no control over who is around you, where they are from and what ages they are.

This mediated space however does not allow for the spontaneity of face-to-face interactions. LeFebvre writes about this stating that this processes can “…constrict the organic communication occurring face-to-face. These strategic processes deliberately force individuals to select their preferences,”(LeFebvre,12). By doing this you definitely lose a sense of reality and or organic interactions. As I learned through my own interviews, many of the users liked this aspect because it made it easier to select a potential mate, particularly one that is close by. However as we have learned through other research as well, this space can create ingenuine interactions among the users.

Another interested concept introduced in this paper was the idea of anonymity as well as being able to never meet these people in real life. He notes that “Mobile dating apps, such as Tinder, afford users the opportunity to fantasize about anonymous individuals, interpersonal relationships, communicative behaviors, and sexual exploits…”(LeFebvre,6). By not ever having to meet these people in real life it allows for the users to have more freedom in interaction and not feel the anxiety that may come with face-to-face interactions. Two of my respondents even claimed that they liked to use the app less for meeting up in real life and more for “feeling important or attractive”. By not meeting in real life but interacting online people feel validation when they see that they have matched with someone. This type of validation would never be able to occur in an offline setting. You certainly can guess and judge if someone has a crush on you but ultimately you can never know unless they say something. It is even harder to know if someone is attracted to you just from your looks in an offline setting because it goes against social norms to tell strangers you find them attractive. However, on Tinder when you match with someone you can safely assume it has something to do with your looks or your bio and you can know instantly that someone is attracted to you. This validation- I learned through speaking with my respondents- can actually be incredibly helpful.

Literature Review #7- Pascoe

Studying Young People’s New Media Use: Methodological Shifts and Educational Innovations

C.J. Pascoe 

This paper allowed me to better understand the affordances and some of the challenges that faced me while I was conducting my research and my interviews. While new technology does help people connect over vast spaces and with remote or isolated populations, some issues can occur. One thing Pascoe talks about however that was helpful in my research as well as my access to the online space of Tinder as well as my ability to send many people my interview questions that were not present in Oregon. Being able to expand my radius of information gathered from young people that use Tinder allowed me to get a better grip on how they are using the technology. If I had only stuck to those in my geographical location I would have had a lot less success with my understanding of Tinder. I did however conduct four personal interviews where I was able to not only see how the respondent physically reacted to the questions (body language), but I was able to go off script and ask clarifying or related questions that just popped into my head. This was one draw back of having people fill out my questionnaire and send it back to me, and for that reason I was not able to use as much of the information given because they also could have been changing their answers to sound a certain way.

Another affordance of being able to use this online space to study Tinder users was my access to the app itself. By allowing myself to spend time using the application I became more familiar with the ins and outs as well as how someone may use it outside of this study. Although I did not spend much time gathering information by using the app myself, it would open up many doors for further research on it. People could gather information over longer periods of time and have personal experience with the application.

Literature Review #6- Boyd

Why Youth Heart Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life

Danah Boyd

Boyd discusses in her research the identity formation and networked publics that form through teenagers using Myspace. While the application is different than Tinder, her points do help shine some light on important topics in my own research. First she introduces the idea of networked publics, this is an online space that is mediated, instead of the offline world where you have no control over who is around you. “While people cannot currently acquire the geographical coordinates of any person in unmediated spaces, finding one’s digital body online is just a matter of keystrokes,”(Boyd,127). It is easy to find people in online spaces that you may never come across offline.

Through this mediated space, people are allowed to create identities and connect with strangers that they otherwise may not have done in real life. A key concept Boyd writes about that directly correlates with my research is the profile formation and communication through mediated spaces. Something I found while speaking with my four respondents is that, when creating their profile, they certainly had to look at others to see what they were doing. In other words in order to decide what was appropriate for a Tinder profile they needed to look at other users first. They needed to “…get a sense of what types of presentations are socially appropriate; others’ profiles provide critical cues about what to present on their own profile,”(Boyd,128). In doing this the user is directly influenced by others around them and quickly learn the social norms that are embedded in Tinder.

Another interesting factor in her work was the idea that online spaces can often be more dense and confusing to navigate. This allows for misinterpretation much more frequently than might happen in an offline setting, (Boyd,129). All four of my respondents said that it was hard to have deep personal conversations online because it is fairly easy to misunderstand what someone is trying to say or there is fear someone will not understand you. Because of this the likelihood of being misinterpreted on Tinder and even seen in a negative way is much higher

Literature Review #5- Davis

“Tensions of identity in a networked era: Young people’s perspectives on the risks and rewards of online self-expression”

Katie Davis

This piece of research talked about online identity and the implications of having a profile that may be different from who you are as a person. During my research something that was expressed by ¾ of those I interviewed was a concern for someone to be inauthentic to their online selves. Online dating can oftentimes be more authentic than any other online sphere, as Davis explains, “Though a certain degree of embellishment may be expected on such sites, the success of online dating depends, ultimately, on a couple’s ability to bring their relationship offline,”(Davis,638). Those that I spoke to personally about their experience with different online identities ultimately explained that it would be fairly difficult to be completely ingenuous online. If you ever wanted to meet this person in an offline setting, you would want your profile to be as genuine to who you are as possible while also embellishing here and there.

Hank and I went particularly into depth about identity and his feelings of anxiety when he uses Tinder to find a date because he has certainly interacted with people that were not genuine. The specific features of Tinder however allow for the affordance of more comfortability in online identity because of the cross-media aspect of it which I explained in a previous review. Davis goes on to explain that other people did see some benefits in having a space to express yourself that maybe you would not be comfortable doing. For instance during their case study, a few interviewees claimed they saw Chris (the fake profile) as someone who may have not been comfortable with his offline self, (Davis,643). This can also be true for Tinder, as I learned in a few of my interviews, people will use their best photos and ideal traits of themselves to present online. This is certainly a degree of identity management and as Davis goes onto explain sometimes having different online personas can lead to  “…higher levels of identity diffusion,” (Davis,638).

During my own research however, none of my respondents expressed feeling like they were being themselves while using Tinder. They did however explain that most people use the best elements of themselves to make their profile seem more attractive. However we can only speculate the implications this twitter monitoring can lead to. Aside from what Hank expressed as being disappointed when you meet someone offline that isn’t like their profile, a few other issues may ensue. You could feel let down if you were on the other end of the stick and someone else perceives you as disingenuous. Also creating profiles where you seem most attractive does not show people the true you, they only see what you want them to see. This impression management may lead to a future relationship with someone that is built on making yourself look good. The app also creates an environment where looks are the only thing that matter. You select a prospective mate based on the photos they upload of themselves and not necessarily the conversations that follow. Danny, the third person I interviewed expressed to me that he definitely only stops at “hot” profiles and that the way you look is the first thing that attracts you to a mate on Tinder.

Literature Review #4 – Ranzini & Lutz

Love at first swipe? Explaining Tinder self-presentation and motives

The Research done in this paper is extremely helpful towards my study. By giving out a 12 minute survey to a large group of people they intended to understand self-presentation through the app Tinder while controlling for things such as loneliness, self-esteem and narcissism. The results showed that those with higher self-esteem are much less likely to engage in falsifying their profiles. Stating on page ten that “…Users with more self-esteem portray themselves in a more authentic fashion,”(Ranzini,10) By looking at the presentation of self we can begin to better understand the different ways in which Tinder is used and its impacts on people’s self esteem. As we will later read in my interviews with my respondents, people tend to have more authentic profiles on Tinder because there is a much greater potential that you will meet this person in real life. “…it is precisely the potential of a future encounter that drives individuals towards an authentic self-presentation,”(Ranzini,5).

Navigating online identities can be confusing and oftentimes misleading. While at the same time a specific affordance of TInder is that you will be more likely to find authentic representations of self. This is due to a number of things, the first being the latter mentioned above, the second being the connection with Facebook. By creating a network that exists across social media sites there is more verification of someone’s personality and looks.

Other affordances mentioned in this particular research were “…portability, availability, locatability, and multimediality,”(Ranzini,2). By this the author is speaking about the frequency in which you have the potential of meeting new people online because of the large collection of users on Tinder. Availability meaning that there is likely a lot of people within your age range and with similar interests that will be available for a face to face meeting. Locality speaks to the unique feature of Tinder which allows you to find people within a certain locale of miles that you have the ability to widen or lessen. This affordance ensures that you look at people online that are close by and thus increase the likelihood of a face to face interaction. And lastly, multimediality is what I mentioned in the previous paragraph which is that Tinder crosses a few different barriers of social media. Not only is facebook required to have in order to use the app but you are also able to link your Instagram profile to yours on Tinder. This allows for a much larger range of photographs and adds another layer of authenticity. Making a fake facebook and producing organic seeming photos on instagram to create a fake Tinder profile seems very over the top and is unlikely for someone to commit to.

Literature Review #3 -David and Cambre

Screened Intimacies: Tinder and the Swipe Logic

This research paper was much more technical than the others, it mainly focused on the logic of swiping left and how that split second decision can make it much easier for most to reject others. It can also create increased anxiety about being liked and looking good. For instance on the the researchers who did in depth field work, using tinder for a two day period, had this to share; “…48 hours on Tinder would send me over the edge. You put a picture of yourself up, and after 48 hours, nobody finds you attractive. You’ve lost all your looks. You no longer have it. The world decided you’re ugly,” (Wygant,9). Up until now we have seen some affordances of the app and some downfalls when it comes to identity and impression management. However we have yet to discuss the issues of self image and the app.

The unique format of Tinder allows you to scroll through many many people swiping left or right and when you match (someone swiped right for you) a little emoji pops up to congratulate you. But as the researcher mentions above, if no one swipes right for you you begin to wonder why. Many people can grow anxious and self conscious because no one around them “found their images attractive”. When speaking to a few of my respondents in my own research they had expressed feel anxious that no one would swipe right for them.

It sometimes can be even more intimidating on Tinder than in real life because you definitely know when someone doesn’t like you. Verse in real life, you can make excuses and jokes that maybe it just wasn’t your night. But when you know people are looking at your pictures and swiping left, and you open your phone to find zero matches, you get self conscious. -Kailey

Here my respondent explains why she felt that being on Tinder and being rejected can be more harmful than being rejected in real life. When you are at a large party and no one comes and talks to you there are many ways to shake that off. Maybe it wasn’t your night as Kailey put it, or maybe you wore the wrong shirt, maybe everyone is too intoxicated or even shy to make a move or introduce themselves to you. So many different factors can go into a face to face interaction or lack thereof, but with Tinder you have a different level of certainty that people are not interested. Many people saw your photo and did not swipe right, they did not want to match with you which is purposefully choosing not to engage with you. It leaves a lot of more room to feel insecure.   

Literature Review #2- MacKee

“Social Media in Gay London: Tinder as an Alternative to Hook-Up Apps”

This study looks at Gay men and their usage of Tinder in London, England. Although not much was mentioned about why these men used the app, this paper gives a great insight into gay impression management and the comparison of Tinder to other dating applications. One interesting term introduced was the idea of polymedia, or as the author describes it is “…a constellation of different media as an integrated environment in which each medium finds its niche in relation to the others,”(MacKee,3). Or rather it is the blend of different forms of media or social media in one space. Tinder does just this by requiring those that use it to link their profile on there with their Facebook. This adds another element of authenticity because you cannot just upload whatever photos you want- keeping those that wish to use false identities at a lower number. Having this polymedia aspect on Tinder also might make the users more comfortable with meeting those online, offline. Requiring Facebook to link up with Tinder suggests authenticity and promotes comfort; what you see on the app will likely be very close to what you see offline.

However people still engage in impression management. MacKee explains that the users of Tinder he spoke to expressed that making a socially acceptable Tinder was key. You want to portray the best you by selecting flattering photos and making sure you have an enticing bio. “…[on] Tinder, mediation happens through pictures, the statement of interests, common contacts in shared networks,and the writing of a profile description,”(MacKee,4). Making sure you have an attractive profile makes you more desirable for potential dates. As I found through speaking with Hank, the only male homosexual used in my study, having a desirable profile is key but also proposes some challenges.

If everyone is using extra cute pictures of themselves and even lying about things they are interested in to attract people to talk to them, it’s hard to know who is real and who isn’t. Then when you meet them in person and it isn’t what you expected you are disappointed.

Mediating your profile is a standard move but one that can lead to confusion and as Hank stated, disappointment. Another interesting finding to note that was mirrored in my own research is the notion that “Tinder has been constructed as a gay haven for connecting with men who are not looking for a casual sex partner and who, in fact, may be open to the possibility of finding romance,”(MacKee,4). As I found through my interviews and surveys, the two gay participants expressed more interest in finding a partner not for hooking up. While on the other hand both male and female heterosexual respondents stated they have used it to find a quick date or casual hook up. Although my findings are not concrete because of the amount of heterosexuals I interviewed verse homosexuals, it does mimic what MacKee claims. Hank expressed to me when asked about his sexual interactions through the app that he only used it to find romantic partners and felt most of the people he spoke to online that were also gay males were looking only for that as well.