Exploring the impact of a ‘confining’ imaginary of user-recommendation systems on platform usage and relationship development among dating app users

References

• Alexopoulos, C., E. Timmermans, and J. McNallie. 2020. “Swiping More, Committing Less: Unraveling the Links among Dating app use, Dating app Success, and Intention to Commit Infidelity.” Computers in Human Behavior 102: 172–180. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2019.08.009.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Alpañés, E. 2022, August 27. The ‘gamification’ of love: Why dating apps have become addictive. El País. https://english.elpais.com/society/2022-08-28/the-gamification-of-love-why-dating-apps-have-become-addictive.html.
   Google Scholar
• Alvarado, O., and A. Waern. 2018. “Towards Algorithmic Experience.” In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–12. doi:10.1145/3173574.3173860.
   Google Scholar
• Barnes, S. B. 2006. “A Privacy Paradox: Social Networking in the United States.” First Monday, doi:10.5210/fm.v11i9.1394.
   Google Scholar
• Bauman, Z. 2003. Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
   Google Scholar
• Berger, C. R., and R. J. Calabrese. 1975. “Some Explorations in Initial Interaction and Beyond: Toward a Developmental Theory of Interpersonal Communication.” Human Communication Research 1 (2): 99–112. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.1975.tb00258.x.
   Google Scholar
• Bucher, T. 2017. “The Algorithmic Imaginary: Exploring the Ordinary Affects of Facebook Algorithms.” Information, Communication & Society 20 (1): 30–44. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2016.1154086.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Burgoon, J. K. 1993. “Interpersonal Expectations, Expectancy Violations, and Emotional Communication.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 12 (1-2): 30–48. doi:10.1177/0261927X93121003.
   Google Scholar
• Caplan, S. E. 2005. “A Social Skill Account of Problematic Internet use.” Journal of Communication 55 (4): 721–736. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2005.tb03019.x.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Carpenter, C. J., and B. McEwan. 2016. “The Players of Micro-Dating: Individual and Gender Differences in Goal Orientations Toward Micro-Dating Apps.” First Monday 21 (5). doi:10.5210/fm.v21i5.6187.
   Google Scholar
• Chan, L. S. 2018. “Ambivalence in Networked Intimacy: Observations from gay men Using Mobile Dating Apps.” New Media & Society 20 (7): 2566–2581. doi:10.1177/1461444817727156.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Chan, L. S. 2021. The Politics of Dating Apps: Gender, Sexuality, and Emergent Publics in Urban China. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
   Google Scholar
• Coduto, K. D., R. J. Lee-Won, and Y. M. Baek. 2020. “Swiping for Trouble: Problematic Dating Application use among Psychosocially Distraught Individuals and the Paths to Negative Outcomes.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 37 (1): 212–232. doi:10.1177/0265407519861153.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Courtois, C., and E. Timmermans. 2018. “Cracking the Tinder Code: An Experience Sampling Approach to the Dynamics and Impact of Platform Governing Algorithms.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 23 (1): 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmx001.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Creswell, J. W. 2013. Steps in Conducting a Scholarly Mixed Methods Study. University of Nebraska Discipline-Based Education Research Group. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article = 1047&context = dberspeakers.
   Google Scholar
• Creswell, J. W., and C. N. Poth. 2016. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.
   Google Scholar
• Curry, D. 2022, August 31. Dating App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022). Business of Apps. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/dating-app-market/.
   Google Scholar
• D’Angelo, J. D., and C. L. Toma. 2017. “There are Plenty of Fish in the sea: The Effects of Choice Overload and Reversibility on Online Daters’ Satisfaction with Selected Partners.” Media Psychology 20 (1): 1–27. doi:10.1080/15213269.2015.1121827.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Davis, F. D. 1989. “Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology.” MIS Quarterly, 13, 319–340. doi:10.2307/249008.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Dhir, A., Y. Yossatorn, P. Kaur, and S. Chen. 2018. “Online Social Media Fatigue and Psychological Wellbeing—A Study of Compulsive use, Fear of Missing out, Fatigue, Anxiety and Depression.” International Journal of Information Management 40: 141–152. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.01.012.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Draper, N. A., and J. Turow. 2019. “The Corporate Cultivation of Digital Resignation.” New Media & Society 21 (8): 1824–1839. doi:10.1177/1461444819833331.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Eslami, M., A. Rickman, K. Vaccaro, A. Aleyasen, A. Vuong, K. Karahalios, … C. Sandvig. 2015. “I Always Assumed That I Wasn't Really That Close to [her].” Reasoning About Invisible Algorithms in News Feeds. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 153–162. doi:10.1145/2702123.2702556.
   Google Scholar
• Eslami, M., K. Vaccaro, K. Karahalios, and K. Hamilton. 2017. “Be Careful; Things Can Be Worse Than They Appear: Understanding Biased Algorithms and Users’ Behavior Around Them in Rating Platforms.” Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, Vol. 11, No. (1), 62–71. doi:10.1609/icwsm.v11i1.14898
   Google Scholar
• Fast, N. J., and A. S. Jago. 2020. “Privacy Matters … or Does it? Algorithms, Rationalization, and the Erosion of Concern for Privacy.” Current Opinion in Psychology 31: 44–48. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.07.011.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fox, J., and B. McEwan. 2017. “Distinguishing Technologies for Social Interaction: The Perceived Social Affordances of Communication Channels Scale.” Communication Monographs 84 (3): 298–318. doi:10.1080/03637751.2017.1332418.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Giddens, A. 1992. Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
   Google Scholar
• Gillespie, T. 2014. “The Relevance of Algorithms.” In Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society, edited by T. Gillespie, P. J. Boczkowski, and K. A. Foot, 167. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
   Google Scholar
• Gran, A. B., P. Booth, and T. Bucher. 2021. “To be or not to be Algorithm Aware: A Question of a new Digital Divide?” Information, Communication & Society 24 (12): 1779–1796. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2020.1736124.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Her, Y. C., and E. Timmermans. 2021. “Tinder blue, mental flu? Exploring the associations between Tinder use and well-being.” Information, Communication & Society 24 (9): 1303–1319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1764606.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hobbs, M., S. Owen, and L. Gerber. 2017. “Liquid Love? Dating Apps, sex, Relationships and the Digital Transformation of Intimacy.” Journal of Sociology 53 (2): 271–284. doi:10.1177/1440783316662718.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Huang, S. A., J. Hancock, and S. T. Tong. 2022. “Folk Theories of Online Dating: Exploring People’s Beliefs About the Online Dating Process and Online Dating Algorithms.” Social Media + Society 8 (2), doi:10.1177/20563051221089561.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Jeffreys, E., ed. 2006. Sex and Sexuality in China (Vol. 5). London: Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• Kim, J., R. LaRose, and W. Peng. 2009. “Loneliness as the Cause and the Effect of Problematic Internet use: The Relationship Between Internet use and Psychological Well-Being.” Cyberpsychology & Behavior 12 (4): 451–455. doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0327.
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Lomborg, S., and P. H. Kapsch. 2020. “Decoding Algorithms.” Media, Culture & Society 42 (5): 745–761. doi:10.1177/0163443719855301.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• McKeever, N. 2022. “Online Dating and Love Robots: How Technology May Undermine Valuable Features of Romantic Love.” In Philosophy of Love in the Past, Present, and Future, edited by A. Grahle, N. McKeever, and J. Saunders, 240–256. London: Routledge.
   Google Scholar
• The Media & Technology Survey. 2023, February 13. With Dating Apps, We Doubt Them but Won't Drop Them. The College of Communication at Boston University. https://www.bu.edu/com/articles/with-dating-apps-we-doubt-them-but-wont-drop-them/.
   Google Scholar
• Möller, J., D. Trilling, N. Helberger, and B. van Es. 2018. “Do not Blame it on the Algorithm: An Empirical Assessment of Multiple Recommender Systems and Their Impact on Content Diversity.” Information, Communication & Society 21 (7): 959–977. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2018.1444076.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Orzeck, T., and E. Lung. 2005. “Big-Five Personality Differences of Cheaters and Non-Cheaters.” Current Psychology 24 (4): 274–286. doi:10.1007/s12144-005-1028-3.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Pardes, A. 2019, May 25. This Dating App Exposes the Monstrous Bias of Algorithms. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/monster-match-dating-app/.
   Google Scholar
• Rader, E., and R. Gray. 2015. “Understanding User Beliefs About Algorithmic Curation in the Facebook News Feed.” Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 33, 173–182. doi:10.1145/2702123.2702174.
   Google Scholar
• Ramirez, A., E. M. Bryant Sumner, C. Fleuriet, and M. Cole. 2015. “When Online Dating Partners Meet Offline: The Effect of Modality Switching on Relational Communication Between Online Daters.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 20 (1): 99–114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.2015.20.issue-1.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Rosenfeld, M. J., R. J. Thomas, and S. Hausen. 2019. “Disintermediating Your Friends: How Online Dating in the United States Displaces Other Ways of Meeting.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 (36): 17753–17758. doi:10.1073/pnas.1908630116.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Rusbult, C. E. 1980. “Commitment and Satisfaction in Romantic Associations: A Test of the Investment Model.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 16 (2): 172–186. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(80)90007-4.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Schwartz, B. 2004. The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. New York: HarperCollins.
   Google Scholar
• Schwartz, S. A., and M. S. Mahnke. 2021. “Facebook Use as A Communicative Relation: Exploring the Relation between Facebook Users and the Algorithmic News Feed.” Information, Communication & Society 24 (7): 1041–1056. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1718179.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sharabi, L. L. 2021. “Exploring how Beliefs About Algorithms Shape (Offline) Success in Online Dating: A two-Wave Longitudinal Investigation.” Communication Research 48 (7): 931–952. doi:10.1177/0093650219896936.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sharabi, L. L. 2022, January 27. Finding Love on a First Data: Matching Algorithms in Online Dating. Harvard Data Science Review. https://hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/i4eb4e8b/release/1.
   Google Scholar
• Sharabi, L. L., and E. Timmermans. 2021. “Why Settle When There are Plenty of Fish in the sea? Rusbult’s Investment Model Applied to Online Dating.” New Media & Society 23 (10): 2926–2946. doi:10.1177/1461444820937660.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Shin, D. 2020. “User Perceptions of Algorithmic Decisions in the Personalized AI System:Perceptual Evaluation of Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Explainability.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 64 (4): 541–565. doi:10.1080/08838151.2020.1843357.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Statista. 2022a. Number of Monthly Active Users of the Largest Mobile Casual Dating Apps in China as of December 2021. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1131443/china-most-popular-mobile-dating-apps/.
   Google Scholar
• Statista. 2022b. Breakdown of Users on Online Dating app Tantan in China as of March 2022, by age group. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1321466/china-age-distribution-of-users-on-tantan/#:~:text = Age%20distribution%20of%20users%20on%20online%20dating%20app%20Tantan%20in%20China%202022&text = As%20of%20March%202022%2C%20users,popular%20dating%20apps%20in%20China.
   Google Scholar
• Sumter, S. R., L. Vandenbosch, and L. Ligtenberg. 2017. “Love me Tinder: Untangling Emerging Adults’ Motivations for Using the Dating Application Tinder.” Telematics and Informatics 34 (1): 67–78. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2016.04.009.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sundar, S. S. 2020. “Rise of Machine Agency: A Framework for Studying the Psychology of Human–AI Interaction (HAII).” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 25 (1): 74–88. doi:10.1093/jcmc/zmz026.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Svendsen, G. B., J. A. K. Johnsen, L. Almås-Sørensen, and J. Vittersø. 2013. “Personality and Technology Acceptance: The Influence of Personality Factors on the Core Constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model.” Behaviour & Information Technology 32 (4): 323–334. doi:10.1080/0144929X.2011.553740.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Swart, J. 2021. “Experiencing Algorithms: How Young People Understand, Feel About, and Engage with Algorithmic News Selection on Social Media.” Social Media + Society 7 (2), doi:10.1177/20563051211008828.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Tiffany, K. 2019. The Tinder Algorithm, Explained: Some Math-Based Advice for Those Still Swiping. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2019/2/7/18210998/tinder-algorithm-swiping-tips-dating-app-science.
   Google Scholar
• Timmermans, E., and C. Alexopoulos. 2020. “Anxiously Searching for Love (Among Other Things): Attachment Orientation and Mobile Dating Application Users’ Motives and Outcomes.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 23 (7): 447–452. doi:10.1089/cyber.2019.0542.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Timmermans, E., and E. De Caluwé. 2017. “Development and Validation of the Tinder Motives Scale (TMS).” Computers in Human Behavior 70: 341–350. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.01.028.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Tong, S. T., J. T. Hancock, and R. B. Slatcher. 2016. “Online Dating System Design and Relational Decision Making: Choice, Algorithms, and Control.” Personal Relationships 23 (4): 645–662. doi:10.1111/pere.12158.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Tsai, C. C., and S. S. J Lin. 2001. “Analysis of Attitudes Toward Computer Networks and Internet Addiction of Taiwanese Adolescents.” CyberPsychology & Behavior 4 (3): 373–376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/109493101300210277.
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Velkova, J., and A. Kaun. 2021. “Algorithmic Resistance: Media Practices and the Politics of Repair.” Information, Communication & Society 24 (4): 523–540. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2019.1657162.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wason, P. 1960. “On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual Task.” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 12 (3): 129–140. doi:10.1080/17470216008416717.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wolfers, L. N., and F. M. Schneider. 2021. “Using Media for Coping: A Scoping Review.” Communication Research 48 (8): 1210–1234. doi:10.1177/0093650220939778.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wu, S., and J. Ward. 2020. “Looking for “Interesting People”: Chinese gay Men’s Exploration of Relationship Development on Dating Apps.” Mobile Media & Communication 8 (3): 342–359. doi:10.1177/2050157919888558.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Xinhua News. 2020. Pan Ying from Tantan: Algorithmic Matching Helps Make Authentic Connections (In Chinese). Xinhuanet. http://www.xinhuanet.com/tech/2020-12/08/c_1126836802.htm.
   Google Scholar
• Yang, Y., and Y. Kim. 2023. “Integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior and Bonding Social Capital to Examine Chinese Women’s Tampon Use Intentions.” Health Communication. Advanced online publication. doi:10.1080/10410236.2021.1962586.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ytre-Arne, B., and H. Moe. 2021. “Folk Theories of Algorithms: Understanding Digital Irritation.” Media, Culture & Society 43 (5): 807–824. doi:10.1177/0163443720972314.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Zhang, X., and Q. Jiang. 2022, July 13. Public Awareness, Perception and Digital Divide: Addressing the Effectiveness of Provisions on Algorithm-Generated Recommendations in China. Think China. https://www.thinkchina.sg/public-awareness-perception-and-digital-divide-addressing-effectiveness-provisions-algorithm.
   Google Scholar