Swipe Culture - Dating Apps and Valuation

• In Event: Relations and Troubles of Tools of Valuation – II

Abstract

Location-aware dating apps like Tinder, Bumble or OkCupid are all the rage. Especially in a pandemic situation they represent important tools to virtually get in touch with other people by swiping through their profiles. In this paper I problematize valuation practices in the context of dating apps. Swiping as subjective articulation of desire is emblematic for that. Furthermore dating apps objectify these valuations in processes of abstraction and quantification exemplified by scoring techniques that facilitate the algorithmic sorting of profiles. As a consequence users face unequal connectivities depending not only on their societal positionality, but also on the technical configuration of the apps. This begs the question of whether the socio-technical assemblages mediate a modification in the field of sexuality and love regarding the (economized) rationalization of desirability. By drawing on autoethnographic research on the dating apps Tinder and OkCupid I point to new modes of government of the self and subjectivities in relation to sexuality.

Author

• Tilma*n Treier, Goethe University Frankfurt