Swiping me off my feet

Abstract

Tinder, a mobile dating application (app), facilitates the initiation of new, potentially romantic relationships and promotes itself as a social discovery platform dominating the U.S. with 1.4 billion swipes per day. This exploratory study investigates how people engage in relationship initiation behaviors through Tinder and highlights how interpersonal relationship initiation, selection processes, and strategic pre-interaction behaviors are evolving through contemporary-mediated dating culture. Participants (N ¼ 395) were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk to complete an online survey about their Tinder usage. The study employed descriptive statistics and thematic analysis to analyze reasons for selecting and deleting Tinder, pre-interaction processes, swiping strategies, and Tinder hookup culture. The prevalent view that Tinder is a sex, or hookup app, remains salient among users; although, many users utilize Tinder for creating other interpersonal communication connections and relationships, both romantic and platonic. Initially, Tinder users gather information to identify their preferences. Their strategies show clear implications for explicating the relationship development model and associated information pursuing strategies. Overall, this study argues that new emergent technologies are changing how interpersonal relationship initiation functions; the traditional face-to-face relationship development models and initiation conceptualizations should be modified to include the introduction of the pre-interaction processes apparent in mobile dating applications such as Tinder. KeywordsDating, hookups, mobile dating apps, pre-interaction, relationship development model, relationship initiation, swiping, Tinder J S P RInterpersonal relationship initiation occurs at the touch of a screen through the mobile phone application (app), Tinder. Tallying 50 million users, 10 million daily active users, and over 100 million downloads (C. Smith, 2016), Tinder ignited the romantic spark for 10 billion matches . Tinder (2016) clocks 1.4 billion swipes per day, aiding 6 billion friendships, professional partnerships, and platonic relationship matches, and 26 million matches daily for those ages 18-50. 1 Tinder, a commonly used dating app, promotes itself as a social discovery platform dominating the U.S. and available in 196 other countries. Apps such as Tinder are changing the dating and mating market landscape. 1 Recent advancements in communication technology enable billions of people to connect using mobile phones (Mieczakowski, Goldhaber, & Clarkson, 2011). Now, with a finger swipe, mobile apps increase convenience due to readily accessible smartphone capabilities, geolocation features, and user-friendly platforms. Tinder affords opportunities to familiarize, communicate, and meet potential partners; the platform utilizes converging proximity, convenience, and technology to promote interpersonal interaction and facilitate physical and psychological connections (Quiroz, 2013). Traditionally, individuals' re...

A Decade Review of Sex and Partnering in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

“…This data source platform was developed in 2005 and allows for the convenience of sampling potentially large numbers of participants from around the world (Ipeirotis, 2010). Although some studies on dating, technology use and relationship experiences, sexual expectations, and hooking up have used MTurk samples (e.g., Hadden, Agnew, & Tan, 2018;LeFebvre, 2018;Olmstead, Norona, & Anders, 2019), studies on CNM in particular have heavily relied on this source as a means of collecting data (Burleigh, Rubel, & Meegan, 2017;Hutzler, Giuliano, Herselman, & Johnson, 2016). Another common source of data collection for studies on CNM is the use of online advertisements at sites such as Craigslist.com and social networking sites such as Facebook (e.g., .…”

“…A recent mixed-methods study found that users matched with those they were searching on Tinder less than half the time while using Tinder and the primary reasons for swiping either right or left (match vs. nonmatch) included attraction (the physical appearance of the other), being a selective swiper (being picky about approving a potential match), and interesting (similar interests and appeal of their posted bio). Participants endorsed Tinder as a means of hooking up at greater rates than dating and meeting others (LeFebvre, 2018). Lastly, a study using a large sample of Belgian young adults found that a greater number of Tinder meetings was associated with a greater number of one-night stands, casual sex relationships, and committed relationships, and participants' motives for Tinder use played a role in each of these (Timmermans & Courtois, 2018).…”

Tinder Use and Romantic Relationship Formations: A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study

“…In addition, users were more likely to be men, born in Norway, non-religious, and not to have children. The association between Tinder use and male sex, being born in Norway, and non-religiosity could relate to Tinder's reputation as a hookup app because male, Norwegian-born, and non-religious students have been shown to be more positive toward casual sex compared to their counterparts (Ahrold and Meston, 2010;Yu, 2010;Adamczyk and Hayes, 2012;LeFebvre, 2018). The finding that students with children were less likely to use Tinder compared to students who did not have children can be speculated to reflect that students with children may have less time available for dating, both off-line as well as online.…”

“…In addition, such apps make it more convenient to meet users off-line due to the location filter function that ensures physical proximity (Orosz et al, 2016;Ranzini and Lutz, 2017). The accessibility of Tinder together with the emphasis put on pictures in selfpresentations via the app, have fueled the notion that Tinder functions mainly as a an app for seeking casual sex/hookups (Riley, 2015;Sales, 2015;Ranzini and Lutz, 2017;LeFebvre, 2018). Empirical research has, however, shown that the motives for Tinder use are diverse, and motives such as seeking long-lasting relationships and passing time/entertainment greatly surpasses casual sex motives (Hobbs et al, 2017;Sumter et al, 2017;Timmermans and De Caluwé, 2017).…”

“…It has been suggested that Tinder use is common among younger adults and men (Timmermans and De Caluwé, 2017;LeFebvre, 2018;Sumter and Vandenbosch, 2019). The proposed overrepresentation of younger adults and men on Tinder has been suggested to be explained by these groups' interest in casual sex (and Tinder's reputation as an app via which casual sex can be obtained) (Buss, 1989;Timmermans and De Caluwé, 2017;LeFebvre, 2018;Sumter and Vandenbosch, 2019). In a similar manner, one may expect country of birth and religious identification to predict Tinder use as these characteristics have been found to predict attitudes toward causal sex.…”