Becoming a (Gendered) Dating App User: An Analysis of How Heterosexual College Students Navigate Deception and Interactional Ambiguity on Dating Apps

Abstract

Scholars have worked to understand how people use dating apps as this new technology changes sexual interactions. While previous scholarship has examined how people interact with one another on dating platforms, less attention has been paid to how people decide to adopt dating apps for personal use. This study analyzes interview data with 27 heterosexual college students in order to examine this process by asking, “how do heterosexual college students come to define dating apps as a normative dating practice?” The findings in this study suggest that both men and women work through ambiguous and deceptive online interactions. As they work through online interactions, they establish themselves as normative dating app users by aligning their experiences with their perceived potential of dating apps. The findings suggest that initially, many dating app users see the apps ‘fun’ or as a ‘game.’ Eventually, through a combination of experience and technological tools, students came to define dating apps as more convenient than in-person dating and relatively safe to use for sex and dating. The findings also suggest that while both men and women confront deception and ambiguous social interactions, gender-specific concerns strongly influence how students use dating apps. This gender difference is particularly pronounced regarding the perceived relative safety of dating apps. Specifically, men define dating apps as fun albeit superficial, whereas women define dating apps as potentially dangerous.