Hot or not: dating apps as socio-technical sites of (e)valuation

With the growing popularity of mobile dating apps such as Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and OKCupid, mobile online dating has evolved from a stigmatized practice to a mainstream format for seeking different types of new relationships, ranging from the search for everlasting love to casual dating and finding local travel guides in new places. As part of the broader development of societal digitization, dating platforms represent a case of digital culture that reflects a shift in our ways of being and interacting with others. In this presentation, I approach this shift through the lens of the sociology of (e)valuation (Lamont, 2012), asking how users of dating apps assign meaning and value to themselves, others, and the world around them by building their profiles, swiping others, and navigating the algorithmic platform. More specifically, understanding online dating as an engagement (Thevenot 2001; 2015) with various intertwined processes of (e)valuation allows for pragmatic analyses of how value is negotiated in everyday practices "in what people spend their time doing" (Lamont, 2012).

In online dating apps, valuation should be addressed as part of an algorithmic culture (Seaver 2017) that involves both human (users, developers) and nonhuman (algorithmic) agents (Courtois & Timmermans 2018; Orlikowski & Scott 2014) and takes shape through multiple formats such as text, images, and prompts. By choosing what is worth showing and saying in an environment characterized by struggle for both visibility and intimacy, online daters communicate interesting knowledge about what they think is a) crucial about themselves and b) important to show in order to attract the people they want to connect with. Accordingly, when searching for potential matches, users evaluate what is important or valuable - or recognizable - to them in other people's profiles. Thus, by complementing existing studies that discuss dating apps from the perspectives of intimacy, authenticity, or user experience (for a review, see Wu & Trottier 2022), I propose that dating apps offer a way to examine what values, norms, and ideals people hold in contemporary societies - and how these are mediated, performed and negotiated in the socio-technical context in which online dating takes place.

Using empirical examples from 30 interviews conducted with dating app users in February and March 2024, this presentation presents fresh empirical data and offers some preliminary analysis of how dating app users interpret and make use of the different valuation formats available on dating apps.