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.