To be posted at a later date.

1. Stefanie Duguay, PhD Candidate
Queensland University of Technology
stefanie.duguay@qut.edu.au
@DugStef
Paper presentation for
Controlling Sexuality and Reproduction
University of Lethbridge
August 12-14, 2015
Right swiping on Tinderellas
Exploring a mobile dating app’s
regulation of identity performances

2. Introducing Tinder
https://vimeo.com/tinderapp/itstartshere

3. • Online dating users most
concerned about
misrepresentation and safety
(Gibbs et al. 2011; Anderson, 2005)
• Dating apps intensify intimacy
through proximity and
immediacy (Blackwell et al. 2014; Hjorth,
2013)
• Through its design and
promotional materials, Tinder
frames this as the need for
users to claim authenticity

4. Theoretical Toolkits - Giddens
• “The authentic person is one who
knows herself and is able to reveal
that knowledge to the other, both
discursively and in the behavioral
sphere” (Giddens, 1991, p. 187)
• The self as reflexive – constantly
under revision but smoothed into a
cohesive narrative to provide
“ontological security” (p. 36)
• Intimacy - mutual disclosure of
cohesive biographical narratives
Image from Estoril Conferences

5. Theoretical toolkits - Callon
• Actor network theory and objects as
mediators (Latour, 2005)
• Sociology of translation (Callon, 1986):
• Problematization - identifies and
defines the actors involved;
• Interessement - invoking interest from
actors and stabilizing their identity;
• Enrolment - when actors accept their
role in the situation; and,
• Mobilization - when actors perpetuate
this framing of the problem and its
solution to others.
Image courtesy of iTunes

6. The Walkthrough Method
• Interdisciplinary + ANT (Latour, 2005; Callon, 1998)
• Interrogates app:
• Technology
• Content
• Users
• Ownership & governance
• Business models (van Dijck, 2013)
(Burgess, Light, & Duguay, 2015; Duguay, Burgess, Light, 2014)

7. Problematization
• Problem: Concerns over
misrepresentation &
safety
• Solution: Meet REAL
people.
• ‘We use Facebook to
make sure you are
matched with real people
who share similar
interests and common
friends.’ (Tinder FAQ, 2014)

8. • Facebook and the real name web
• Real names as symbolic tokens (Giddens, 1991)
• “The spirit of our policy is that everyone on
Facebook uses the authentic name they use in
real life” (Facebook CPO Chris Cox, 2014)
• “Creates a safer environment” and holds
individuals accountable

9. Interessement
• Tinder users depicted as authentic
• Following day-to-day regimes as “learned practices that
entail tight control over organic needs” (Giddens, 1991, p. 62)
• Giving rise to lifestyles that “give material form to a
particular narrative of self-identity” (p. 81)
• Authenticity as displays of self-mastery, conditioning regimes
to fit into lifestyles in the narrative of the self
Image from Tinder

10. • Tinder’s marketing promotes normative regimes and
lifestyles

11. Enrolment
• “We always saw Tinder, the
interface, as a game”
(Sean Rad, Tinder co-founder in Stampler, 2014)
• Routine is fundamental to
ontological security, providing
coherence to day-to-day life and
giving rise to rituals through which
individuals rationalize their activities
(Giddens, 1991)
• Users become enrolled in Tinder
through its game-like design, which
integrates the app into their
everyday lives
Image courtesy of iTunes

12. • User must conform
to the rules of the
game

13. Mobilization
• Multiple actors perpetuate Tinder’s problematization
of dating as the need for authenticity and its solution
in Facebook and appeals to normativity.
Image courtesy of College Humor

14. • Expert systems – authoritative sources of technical
knowledge that garner trust from individuals (Giddens,
1991)
• Reinforces Tinder’s framing (celebrities as
archetypes of normativity) and elaborates on it
(media panics can shape user behavior)
From HilaryDuffVEVO
From The Telegraph

15. Overflowing
• Some users are resisting Tinder’s framing,
showing that:
• Facebook is not enough to prevent ‘unsafe’ or
dehumanizing behavior
Video: Tender – It’s how people meat

16. • Other social media can be used to criticize the
app’s normativity

17. Conclusion
• For individuals who do not meet
normative standards or who do
not have Facebook-friendly
identities, Tinder’s framing may
affect their well being, safety,
expression of sexuality and
ability to find relationships.
• Current findings limited to app
analysis and related materials
• Future research: Interviews and
analysis of user practices

18. References
Anderson TL (2005) Relationships among Internet attitudes, Internet use, romantic
beliefs, and perceptions of online romantic relationships. Cyberpsychology & Behaviour
8(6): 521–531.
Blackwell C, Birnholtz J and Abbott C (2014) Seeing and being seen: Co-situation and
impression formation using Grindr, a location-aware gay dating app. New Media & Society
00: 1-20 (accessed 26 May 2014).
Burgess J, Light B and Duguay S (2015) Studying HookUp apps: A comparative platform
analysis of Tinder, Mixxxer, Squirt, and Dattch. ICA 65th Annual Conference:
Communication Across the Life Span, 21-25 May, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Callon M (1986) Some elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the
scallops and the fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay. In: Law J (ed) Power, action and belief.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 196–233.
Callon M (1998) Actor-Network Theory - The market test. In: Law J and Hassard J (eds)
Actor network theory and after. Oxford: Blackwell, 181–195.
Duguay S, Burgess J and Light B (2014) Dating and hooking up with mobile media: A
comparative study of Tinder, Mixxxer, Squirt and Dattch. Digcult14: Making digital
cultures of gender and sexuality with social media, 28 October, Queensland University of
Technology, Brisbane.

19. References continued
Gibbs JL, Ellison NB and Lai C-H (2011) First comes love, then comes Google: An
investigation of uncertainty reduction strategies and self-disclosure in online dating.
Communication Research 38(1): 70–100.
Giddens A (1991) Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age.
Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Hjorth L (2013) The place of the emplaced mobile: A case study into gendered locative
media practices. Mobile Media & Communication 1(1): 110–115.
Latour B (2005) Reassembling the social: An introduction to Actor-Network-Theory.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stampler L (2014) Inside Tinder: Meet the guys who turned dating into an addiction.
Time. Available at: http://time.com/4837/tinder-meet-the-guys-who-turned-dating-
into-an-addiction/ (accessed 1 September 2014).
Van Dijck J (2013) The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford
and New York: Oxford University Press.
Images on slides 3 & 17 are screenshots from #ItStartsHere

20. Questions?
“I joined Tinder as a dog” – Joe Veix, 2014
Stefanie Duguay, PhD Candidate
Digital Media Research Centre
Creative Industries Faculty
Queensland University of
Technology
stefanie.duguay@qut.edu.au
stefanieduguay.com
@DugStef