Dating apps as public health ‘problems’: cautionary tales and vernacular pedagogies in news media

Albury, Kath; McCosker, Anthony; Pym, Tinonee; Byron, Paul

doi:10.1080/14461242.2020.1777885

Cited by 26 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Dating app academic literature focuses largely on health (Albury et al, 2020), sexting (Huang et al, 2016), the exponential growth of a hook-up culture (Albury et al, 2017), dating app infrastructure (Duguay, 2019), and, to a lesser degree, the reinforcement or subversion of heteronormativity via dating apps (Saraiva et al, 2020). However, currently, there is little analysis of the deep continuities in love and intimacy which dating apps produce and facilitate.…”

Section: Dating Appsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jagged Love: Narratives of Romance on Dating Apps during COVID-19

Portolan

McAlister

2021

Sexuality & Culture

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The romance plot is one of the most pervasive narratives in Western society. It is a cultural masterplot: a story with which almost everyone is familiar, which can deeply and intrinsically shape the way we think about how we live. This article examines how people interact with the romance masterplot and how it affects their search for love on dating apps in Australia during the global pandemic in 2020. Using data drawn from interviews and focus groups, and combining sociological research and narrative theory, we explore the way the romance masterplot affects the way people approach romance in dating apps, and how this has been complicated by the pandemic. We propose that participants use of dating apps in this period was characterised by 'jagged love', which we have theorised in relation to Zygmunt Bauman's notion of 'liquid love'. This manifested cyclically, as participants turned to the apps seeking the security offered by the romance masterplot in a time of global uncertainty; swiped, matched, and messaged in large numbers, and lost faith in the apps ability to deliver on the romantic masterplot. While episodic behaviour on dating apps is not new, the pandemic heightened and accelerated the process as people desperately sought the certainty offered by the romance masterplot, quickly lost faith because of the limitations of the pandemic, and then returned again.

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Section: Dating Appsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jagged Love: Narratives of Romance on Dating Apps during COVID-19

Portolan

McAlister

2021

Sexuality & Culture

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“…This paper draws on interviews and workshops conducted with Australian LGBTQ+ app users, with the aim of learning more about what made them feel safer – or less safe – when using apps. The project – which involved partnerships with two sexual health organisations offering both clinical and health promotion services – aimed to inform health promotion practice (Albury et al, 2019). Topics explored include which apps participants used and why; feelings of safety and risk; how app-use relates to a sense of wellbeing (or not); and personal strategies for safer app use.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hooking up with friends: LGBTQ+ young people, dating apps, friendship and safety

Byron

Albury²,

Pym

2020

Media, Culture & Society

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Research exploring digital intimate publics tends to consider social media platforms and dating/hook-up apps separately, implying distance between social and sexual communication practices. This paper troubles that delineation by drawing on LGBTQ+ young people’s accounts of negotiating safety and risk in dating/hook-up apps, in which friendship practices are significant. We explore four key themes of friendship that arose in our analysis of interviews and workshop discussions: sharing mutuals (or friends-in-common) with potential dates/hook-ups; making friends through apps; friends supporting app negotiations; and friends’ involvement in safety strategies. Through analysis of these data, we firstly argue that friendship is often both an outcome and an organising force of LGBTQ+ young people’s uses of dating/hook-up apps, and secondly, that media sites commonly defined as social (e.g. Instagram) or sexual (e.g. Tinder) are imbricated, with friendship contouring queer sex and dating practices.

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“…Lastly, MSM use dating apps for a variety of reasons, including for sexual and non-sexual reasons (Albury et al, 2019 ), and some MSM have expressed frustration with the prevalence of casual sexual interactions online (McKie et al, 2017). The variations in MSM’s motivations for dating app use may mean that those who use apps for sexual purposes may welcome unsolicited DPs, while those who use apps for non-sexual purposes may experience them as TFSV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Three Dimensions of Unsolicited Dick Pics: Men Who have Sex with Men’s Experiences of Sending and Receiving Unsolicited Dick Pics on Dating Apps

Dietzel

2021

Sexuality & Culture

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Dating apps as public health ‘problems’: cautionary tales and vernacular pedagogies in news media

Cited by 26 publications

References 26 publications

Jagged Love: Narratives of Romance on Dating Apps during COVID-19

Jagged Love: Narratives of Romance on Dating Apps during COVID-19

Hooking up with friends: LGBTQ+ young people, dating apps, friendship and safety

The Three Dimensions of Unsolicited Dick Pics: Men Who have Sex with Men’s Experiences of Sending and Receiving Unsolicited Dick Pics on Dating Apps

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