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The Procedural Rhetoric of Gaming and Online Dating in Tinder

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The Procedural Rhetoric of Gaming and Online Dating in Tinder University of Mary Washington Eagle Scholar Student Research Submissions Spring 5-4-2018 It’s A Match! The Procedural Rhetoric of Gaming and Online Dating in Tinder Christina Brown Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Brown, Christina, "It’s A Match! The Procedural Rhetoric of Gaming and Online Dating in Tinder" (2018). Student Research Submissions. 246. https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/246 This Honors Project is brought to you for free and open access by Eagle Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Research Submissions by an authorized administrator of Eagle Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PROCEDURAL RHETORIC OF GAMING AND ONLINE DATING 1 It’s A Match! The Procedural Rhetoric of Gaming and Online Dating in Tinder Christina M. Brown University of Mary Washington PROCEDURAL RHETORIC OF GAMING AND ONLINE DATING 2 Abstract This paper explores the procedural rhetoric of the popular dating app Tinder. I argue that through its procedural rhetoric, Tinder functions to gamify dating, and provides a persuasive game worthy of rhetorical analysis. In this paper, I focus on the first two phases of a procedural rhetoric approach for studying online dating outlined by Shepherd (2016) — 1) gathering information on app functionality and 2) engaging with the user experience. Not only do the procedures and blurbs gamify Tinder, but they also call users to action, combat negative stereotypes surrounding dating and Tinder, and seek to create a commonality between users. The gamification of dating by Tinder offers many implications and also shows the need for further rhetorical study. PROCEDURAL RHETORIC OF GAMING AND ONLINE DATING 3 The Internet enables people to order new shoes, participate in democratic deliberation, and even find romance. Match.com launched in 1995, becoming the first of many online dating websites to offer a digital alternative to traditional face-to-face dating, streamlining what is the oftentimes tedious, frustrating, and dissatisfying process of courtship (Lee, 2016). As people flocked to these sites in hopes of finding love from the convenience of their homes, the industry specialized. For example, Farmersonly.com targets lonely country folk looking for the “one,” while Veggiedate.org promises “Vegetarian dating for vegetarian singles and vegetarian social networking” (Veggiedate.org). In 2012, Tinder revolutionized the notion of dating sites by launching a smartphone app that connected people by geographic location. According to the Pew Research Center in 2015, “22% of 18- to 24-year-olds now report using mobile dating apps, a more than fourfold increase from the 5% who reported using dating apps in 2013” (Smith, 2016). Dating apps are increasingly popular among young adults specifically, and Tinder in particular remains at the top of this competitive market by appealing to younger audiences through the incorporation of several game-like features. It is not uncommon for dating to be conceptualized and discussed in popular culture through the language of gaming. As Wayne Fontana’s classical 1965 song “The Game of Love” epitomizes, the pursuit of love is rife with strategic choices, meddling adversaries, countless rules, and more than a few “players” (Game of Love). While dating has long been associated with gaming, Tinder intensifies this relationship by literally turning dating into a game. A common critique of Tinder as a dating app is that it resembles a game more than a dating site; in fact, the platform is perceived in contemporary culture as a hookup site rather than a place to make meaningful relationships. Articles with titles such as “Watch out for Players! Young Adults use Tinder more like a Game than a Way to find Love!”, “Young Adults Swipe Right on Tinder, but is it Just a Game?”, and “The Tinder Games” PROCEDURAL RHETORIC OF GAMING AND ONLINE DATING 4 show both the observation and concern that dating has become a literal game. The Chief Strategy Officer for Match Group, who owns Tinder, Amarnath Thombre, commented, Tinder seems built to sneak people into online dating. ‘I wouldn’t even call it dating- I don’t think you need to call it dating… You enter like you’re trying to play a game and then you end up dating people. It’s more like a psychological switch. (Associated Press, 2016) This suggests that the app’s primary function is to gamify the process of finding love online. Dr. Ian Bogost (2010), in his book Persuasive Games, introduces “procedural rhetoric” as a method for studying games from a rhetorical perspective based on the capability of digital experiences to persuade users to think, feel, and act in codified ways. The connection between procedural rhetoric and traditional online dating such as Match.com, eHarmony.com, and OKCupid.com is explored by Dr. Dawn Shepherd (2016) in her book Building Relationships: Online Dating and the New Logics of Internet Culture. This paper will analyze the ways in which Tinder gamifies love and the implications of such a rhetorical approach to dating in the digital age. More specifically, I study how Tinder deploys what Bogost (2010) describes as “procedural rhetoric” to gain attention and shape user experience. First, I move through recent literature about online dating and procedural rhetoric both separately and conjointly. Next, I provide a brief introduction to the functionality of Tinder to then engage with my own research on the app. Finally, I offer implications as well as suggestions for further research. The Game of Love: Online Dating and Procedural Rhetoric Since its inception, online dating has become increasingly popular method for meeting romantic partners. Users turn to the Internet to look for one of the most intimate interpersonal relationships. For this reason, scholars are noting online dating as an important area of study PROCEDURAL RHETORIC OF GAMING AND ONLINE DATING 5 (Shepherd, 2016). Sherry Turkle (1995) suggests that in a culture of simulation, the computer is now an object for postmodernism in which “old distinctions between what is specifically human and specifically technological become more complex” (p. 21). Human relationships with technology are increasingly salient as people turn to computers and smartphones to assist in finding romantic partners. Recently, scholars have also given more attention to the study of videogames through procedural rhetoric (Shepherd, 2016). While research into online dating and videogames are vibrant separately, they are rarely brought into conversation with each other; this is rather surprising given the popularity of both phenomenon in digital culture. One goal of this paper is to narrow the divide between communication research on online dating and videogames. Online Dating When studying online dating, some scholars have turned their attention to the people and groups attracted to use these sites as a means of locating potential partners. Kang and Hoffman (2011) state that, “…a person who is trusting of others is less likely to use an online dating site, and an individual who performs a greater number of tasks on the Internet is more likely to use an online dating site” (p. 210). Other research has explored the way in which online dating is distinctively different from offline dating. For instance, Finkel, Eastwick, Karney, Reis, and Sprecher (2012) identify three distinctive features of online dating: “access to potential romantic partners, communication with potential romantic partners, and matching with compatible romantic partners” (Finkel et al., 2012, p. 4). These features have unique characteristics in Tinder due to its game-like features. Access to potential partners in Tinder is based on geographic location, giving the user access to partners within close proximity. On Tinder, communication with potential partners is only allowed if both partners have liked each other. Finally, matching with potential romantic partners on Tinder is based off very limited information about the other PROCEDURAL RHETORIC OF GAMING AND ONLINE DATING 6 person. In their research, Finkel et al. (2012) also state, “Online dating is pervasive, and it has fundamentally altered both the romantic acquaintance process and the process of compatibility matching” (Finkel et al., 2012, p. 53). This is an important finding in legitimizing the study of online dating sites; however, there has been little research on mobile phone dating apps specifically. A reason for this may be due to the newness of mobile dating apps; but their increased popularity validates them as deserving of study. Previous research has investigated how people present themselves online, and the way users create their “ideal self” through their profile (Ellison, Heino & Gibbs, 2006). The Tinder profile differs drastically from other online dating profiles because the main feature is the photo of the users. Research shows that photo-based first impressions impact user perceptions (Olivola, Eastwick, Finkel, Ariely, & Todorov, 2011). However, a quantitative study of eHarmony.com users showed that “users consistently valued communication and characteristics such as personality or kindness more than sexual attraction” (Menkin, Robles, Wiley & Gonzaga, 2015, p. 990). Tinder differs drastically from traditional dating sites as it is a first impression, image based mobile phone app. The game is procedurally structured to encourage users to make quick decisions to either “like” or “dislike” another user based
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