Hook-Up and Dating Apps

Abstract

Hook-up apps are a relatively recent form of digitally mediated dating. They are apps—software programs configured for a specific purpose—that play a role in sociotechnical arrangements of hooking up—finding a partner for dating or sexual activity. While they are often used for a variety of purposes, from meeting friends to political campaigning, hook-up apps are generally framed or perceived as being associated with romantic and sexual relationships. Hook-up apps feature in a long lineage of analogue and digital tools that have mediated dating, from the telegraph to early online dating websites. This history is reflected in enduring moral panics about how such tools may affect society, such as whether or not they threaten the formation of long-term relationships. This history is also apparent in longstanding scholarly investigations into the nuances of how the different affordances of such technologies shape self-presentation, intimacy, communities, and social inequalities. These inquiries endure in today’s studies of hook-up apps. Digital technology has been pivotal in helping marginalized populations to find each other and, particularly, in how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals have connected through chatrooms, websites, and contemporary apps. Early hook-up apps popular with gay men, such as Grindr, ushered in the eventual proliferation of hook-up apps marketed to wider populations. Notably, hook-up apps are designed to function on mobile devices, with the smartphone’s rapid uptake enabling partner-seeking anywhere and anytime as these apps have become integrated into daily life. They rely on geolocational data, enabling users to check out prospective partners nearby, to arrange meet-ups when traveling, or to access informational resources when settling into a new country. However, their use on personal devices and the intimate nature of users’ exchanges also pose new hurdles for research methods and practices. Hook-up apps function within the information age’s broader political economy of datafication, data surveillance, and technology-driven profit-making. While they introduce new opportunities for social connection, their affordances and user practices can also re-create and reinforce existing forms of gender and racial discrimination. As apps that overlay digital and physical spaces, their use is fully enmeshed in surrounding cultural, social, political, and economic contexts. With these multiple factors in mind, this bibliography presents resources for understanding hook-up apps from perspectives largely situated within communications and cultural studies. While presented according to dominant themes, several entries address multiple aspects of hook-up apps and present a range of findings that are relevant across categories.