Sociology review gay dating apps

Smartphones apps have provided a new opportunity for men who have sex with men MSM to connect romantically and sexually with each other. Based on uses and gratifications theory and conditional process analysis, this research found that Based on uses and gratifications theory and conditional process analysis, this research found that the intensity of app use mediated the relationships between the motives of using the apps romance-and sex-seeking and the relational outcomes numbers of romantic and casual sexual partners met via apps respectively.

The study also looked at how MSM-specific psychographic factors gay identity confusion, outness to the family, and outness to the world moderated this mediation. For romantic relationships, no moderated mediations of psychographics were found. For casual sexual relationships, gay identity confusion positively moderated the mediation of usage intensity, in a way that the more one was confused about his gay identity, the stronger the mediating effect was; while outness to the world negatively moderated such mediation, in a way that the less one was out to the world, the stronger the mediating effect was.

This pair of opposite moderating effects showed that gay identity confusion and outness to the world were two sides of the same coin. This research explicates the link between motives and relational outcomes. Future researchers can look at other MSM-specific psychographics, the spatial features of dating apps, and the differences across platforms.

REACTING TO GAY DATING APP BIO's

Limited research has investigated the relationships between motives and outcomes of using mobile dating apps i. Grindr, Jack'd, and Scruff among gay men or men who have sex with men. This study builds upon uses and gratification This study builds upon uses and gratification theory and social capital scholarship to examine these relationships.

Three motives—sex-seeking, romance-seeking, and identity-seeking—were considered and their associations with social capital and the size of sexual networks accumulated through using dating apps were assessed. Data from an online sample of respondents were tested with structural equation modeling. The results showed that whether social capital or sexual networks was accumulated depend on the specific motives of the users.

Sex-seeking had a positive relationship with the size of sexual networks while identity-seeking had a negative relationship with the size. Romance-seeking and identity-seeking had positive relationships with both bridging and bonding social capital. The study sheds light on the behavior of sexual minorities in the digital age, as well as provides insights to social workers who focuses on the social well-being of sexual minorities and public health practitioners who work on safe sex promotion.

Ambivalence in Networked Intimacy: The transition from the traditional society to modern society cultivates new forms of intimate relationships that differ from those in traditional society. I argue that intimacy undergoes another wave of transformation in network society I argue that intimacy undergoes another wave of transformation in network society.

Scholars have theorized this form as 'networked intimacy. Combining interview and survey data collected from gay, bisexual, and queer-identifying men, I show that intimate relationships supported and elevated by mobile dating apps carry an affective register that is characterized by ambivalence: I conclude that these aspects of ambivalence are not exclusive to gay communities but rather reflect the wider culture in contemporary society where the lack of commitment, the logic of self-branding, and the practice of post-comprehension have come to prominence.

Dating Apps Research Papers - lartigiano.hu

Al calor de la coyuntura descrita, y en torno al uso del dating app, han surgido una serie de marcas digitales muy potentes que han conformado un sector centrado en buscar citas o encuentros entre personas. Palabras clave keywords: Iranian and queer: Identity formation is an ongoing process that evolves over time depending on the cultural and geographical setting where one is located.

This is particularly accurate for gay men who grow up in countries such as Iran where homosexuality This is particularly accurate for gay men who grow up in countries such as Iran where homosexuality is strictly forbidden, and immigrate to countries such as the United States, where same-sex marriage has recently been legalized. By using semi-structured interviews, I aimed to investigate how gay Iranian men navigate their online identities, cross-culturally, between their country of origin, Iran, and the country they have immigrated to, the United States.

The medium utilized to observe gay Iranians online selves is the dating application Grindr. The results demonstrated that sexual identities are conflicted. On the one hand, the participants expressed unforeseen racism, stereotyping and fetishism coming from an alleged inclusive Western gay community. On the other hand, the group of subjects demonstrated similar identity patterns notably in regards to their maintained discretion.

Where queer cyberspace, hegemonic masculinities and online subjectivities intersect: Online technologies and social networking sites SNS have provided gay men with new spaces for participation, interaction and connection with other gay men. Geo-location based dating applications such as Grindr offer the Geo-location based dating applications such as Grindr offer the opportunity to create queer cyberspace in heteronormative environments.

A video was produced and displayed during the opening of the Capstone Fair and the exhibition as a final work. The video was presented in a style of short film portraying a triangular love story surrounding a bisexual man, a gay man and a straight girl, with some dramatic twists in the plot involving the three. The cast constituted a wide range of main and side characters of different sexualities so to present the dating app experience of different users in a fair and comprehensive manner.

Research topic

The researchers are also getting in touch with other migrant and LGBTQ organisations and exploring possibilities in ways of disseminating the research results to them, while presentations will be one of the means in this case, to help create positive impact and to achieve the objectives of the project. A powerpoint slideshow was prepared for facilitating the presentation and giving detailed illustration of the research. They have also raised a lot of thought-provoking questions and given us a lot of valuable advice.

Some of them have asked us in-depth questions on how the motives interact with other factors and produce the analytical framework, inspiring us to provide a more comprehensive and interconnective analysis in the final work. Moreover, some have pointed out the over-complexity of our research that it may not be easy for non-sociology student to understand our intersectional study.

Their opinions have shaped our later approach in narrowing the research to cross-sexuality study and a more colloquial style of presentation in accommodating the public. Moreover, it was spotted that quite an amount of the visitors to the booth had little prior knowledge of the dating-apps, no matter straight or gay apps. This has reminded the researcher to include more introduction of different dating-apps in later stages such as the writing of research essay and preparation of presentations. Use the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues.

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These apps allow users to create profiles to present themselves and interact with each other to reach multiple goals, such as casual sex, dating, or networking. Attending to the dynamics between communication technologies and society, this article reviews gay dating app studies that highlight the communicative practices and social relations mediated by dating apps.

The mediation of gay men's lives: A review on gay dating app studies

We suggest that future research should pay more attention to the technical development of dating devices and the transformation of gay men's social relations. Unlike traditional dating sites, dating apps seem to reduce the time for getting a match; unlike Facebook, dating apps bring strangers together. The academic world has expressed interest in the increasing prevalence of dating apps.

Dating apps designed for gay men, or more broadly, men who have sex with men MSM , such as Grindr, Scruff, and Jack'd, have become an object of study for social science researchers. To study these apps and their uses, researchers have adopted distinct approaches. Accordingly, literature on gay dating apps is generated in different disciplines, namely, sociology and psychology, and in different fields, such as communication studies, gender studies, and HIV prevention studies.

Dating Apps

Specifically focused on the dynamics between communication technologies and society, this article reviews studies that highlight communicative practices and social relations mediated by dating apps, rather than the correlation between dating app use and sexual risk practices that concerns HIV prevention researchers.

Nevertheless, even within our narrowed scope, these studies draw on various theories, which makes it hard to tell a coherent story. Except for this strand, however, other literatures on gay dating apps do not form a direct dialogue. Given the novelty of this field and the current lack of an overview, in this paper, we provide a thematic review of gay dating app studies.

To critically assess existing literature, we use the mediation framework proposed by Lievrouw This framework helps in understanding how communication technologies and society mutually shape each other. Lievrouw frames communication technologies as infrastructures. She argues that these infrastructures consist of three components, namely, a artifacts , devices or objects with certain technological and material features, used by people to communicate with each other; 2 practices , how people engage in communication with devices; and 3 social arrangements , social relations, institutions, and structures that not only organize and govern but also form and develop around communication technologies and practices.

These three components are in a constant state of flux. She identifies three corresponding modes of change, which are respectively called reconfiguration of artifacts, remediation of practices, and reformation of social arrangements. By borrowing from this mediation framework, we look at how dating app studies have enriched our knowledge of the dynamic interactions and articulations among artifacts, practices, and social arrangements. In the case of gay dating apps, we see dating apps as technical products representing artifacts.

The ways gay men use dating apps can be defined as practices , and finally, the social relations among gay men can be viewed as social arrangements. In this review, we categorize the literature by examining the components and processes researchers have emphasized.

Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that some studies examine multiple components and processes e. This figure serves to structure the remainder of this review. For example, in the first section, we zoom in on the micro level of people's practices. We look at studies highlighting how gay men's use of dating apps is afforded by technique and design features of the dating devices under existing but changing social arrangements.

These studies demonstrate multiple goals of gay dating app users, some of which are even not intended by dating app designers Shield, , and the ways users present themselves in profiles and interact with others through private chat to achieve certain goals Birnholtz et al. In the second section of the review, we zoom out to explore a macro landscape of existing social arrangements, and how these arrangements respond to dating apps and gay men's online dating practices. Finally, in the discussion, we make several suggestions for future research.

These suggestions include focusing on the naissance and evolvement of gay dating apps and looking into the meaning of sex and emergence of new social relations. Many gay dating app researchers are interested in how dating apps, playing on the existing social norms within certain cultural contexts, shape gay men's online dating practices.