The Datafication of Intimacy: Mobile Dating Apps, Dependency, and Everyday Life

Abstract

Mobile dating apps are familiar in everyday life. Their data-driven operations offer algorithmically organized archives of people. This paper aims to offer a reflection on the datafication of intimacy, focusing on the social knowledge mobile dating apps produce on the building of close human connections. Drawing on interviews with young adults, I rely on an existential media analysis, exploring struggles with and around mobile dating apps. I argue that the datafication of intimacy is a particular way of experiencing intimacy, going beyond the socio-technological functions of mobile dating apps. I show how the datafication of intimacy is a mathematical mind-set characterized by commercialization and rationalization (predictability, controllability, convenience), building a relationship of interdependency between a data economy and intimacy. I conclude how this interdependency is an emotionally experienced, existential burden for people, it demands reflection on how data-driven technology has become environmental to building close human connections.