Abstract
This paper examines how online dating apps have completely changed the dating scene for young people. This study explores how these apps have reshaped how teens interact in relationships and understand intimacy. By looking at the rise of apps like Tinder and Bumble, the report will uncover the new norms they have created around dating and intimacy. This research aims to shed light on how online dating impacts young people, perceptions of love and relationships, offering insights into this modern dating phenomenon.
Introduction
The purpose of this study is to explore adolescents’ perceptions of how romantic relationships are expressed through social networking sites and how they experience them. As a result of these findings, social networking sites like Tinder and Bumble, play a significant role in relational information gathering. Potential romantic partners are mainly judged based on their status updates and pictures. Respondents indicated that if they were romantically interested, they would prefer to see pictures and status updates from several years ago or send private messages. Relationships involving Tinder and Bumble Officials were not seen as important by respondents in our sample. The teenagers understood how social networking sites could cause devotedly and recognized situations of controlling behavior like sharing passwords or maintaining updates on partners’ profiles (Hawkins, 2022). Teenagers most often witnessed their romantic partners make emotional status changes on social media Tinder and Bumble, following their breakup, and deleting romantic partners from their profile platforms was a common outcome of romantic breakups. Future research directions and practical consequences are discussed.
Case
1. The role of social networking sites during a romantic relationship
1.1. Positive aspects of social networking sites during romantic relationships
Tinder and Bumble, users may showcase their relationship status (i.e., engaged, unmarried, in a relationship, difficult, or single). When a couple decides to become public with their romantic status, their family, friends, and coworkers can respond by liking or commenting on the post, expressing their support and acceptance. It is common to refer to declaring one’s relationship status on Tinder and Bumble, as ” Tinder and Bumble Official.” Being a Tinder and Bumble Official is seen by numerous adult couples as a significant turning point in their relationship as lovers. They officially declare and confirm to all their online connections that they are in a love relationship with this tool. There is a correlation between this behavior and happier relationships. However, some research has also indicated that men and women may find it to be a possible source of tension in their relationships (Rosenfeld, 2018).
Although certain research indicates that men and women hold various views of what constitutes a Tinder and Bumble official, which may potentially lead to interpersonal discord, in addition to sharing their relationship status, Tinder and Bumble allow couples to stay in touch by allowing them to send and receive both private and public messages. For example, romantic partners can express their love through postings like “I like you” or “I miss you” on each other’s profile sites. These posts are similar to public demonstrations of affection such as touching hands or kissing in public. Choosing a photo of themselves and their romantic partner to use as their profile image is another way for people to show their love. This is commonly connected to relationship happiness between adults (Van Ouytsel,et. al., 2016).
It has been discovered that a person’s attachment type affects whether or not they choose to make their relationship public on Tinder and Bumble. While nervous individuals were more inclined to share information regarding their personal lives on Tinder and Bumble and had more positive sentiments about it, avoidant people were unwilling to share and less inclined to make their relationship apparent to others. Another study discovered that compared to those in physically close relationships, participants in long-distance relationships were more likely to use Tinder and Bumble for relational maintenance behaviors (such as telling their partner they love them or promoting them to express their feelings on the social media platform) (Chisom, 2021).
1.2 Tinder
Tinder consequently has to establish casualizing impacts on intimate performances due to its concentration on the play-game dichotomy. When contrasted with dating, grasping up is more informal, therefore it is more vulnerable to Tinder’s formalizing impacts. By organizing these casual sexual interactions through two mechanisms that are referred to as attraction profiling and protecting, Tinder transforms hookup behavior. Interest segmentation refers to Tinder’s offering as a starting place for people searching for possibilities with the other sex while safeguarding refers to the app’s introduction of control over the parameters of a sexual encounter. Tinder’s casualizing impacts are particularly identifiable for dating performances since dating has historically been less informal than hooking up (Source: Isisag, 2020).
(Source: Isisag, 2020)
After setting up their profiles, individuals can begin browsing the database of profiles to find possible matches. The application uses the capability, or geographically based GPS capabilities, of smartphones to identify users’ whereabouts in real-time and show them profiles that fit their age range and geographical requirements. The app has proven helpful for setting up casual, last-minute meets with possible partners who live and work nearby in cities, and several of my research participants report choosing one to five-mile radiuses.
(Source: Isisag, 2020)
Cofounder Sean Rad says that the deck of cards displays and the swiping feature was designed to highlight the playful elements of Tinder’s UI. These game design components have successfully recruited users to co-create Tinder-mediated personal performances, which is by their standards. There are several comparisons to Tinder as a game on user profiles as they have been significant to the app’s quick rise in popularity (Rosenfeld, 2018).
(Source: Isisag, 2020)
To help explain, each user sees Tinder’s database of profiles as a deck of cards, with every profile’s first image serving as a card in the deck. The individual has the option to decide by swiping if they decide not to interact with the profile. The core feature of Tinder’s augmented interface is clicking, which is important for creating a playful environment because it is seen as a challenge in and of itself. When the app presents suitable profiles, the user can swipe right (“Like”) to indicate that they want to match or swipe left (“Nope”) to hide the profile and keep looking through the deck (LeFebvre, 2018).
When used in conjunction with the deck of cards display, swiping forces the user to assess each profile independently, avoiding the kind of in-depth comparisons that come with online dating. Additionally, it allows the viewer to quickly decide which of the first 48 photographs to be interested in by focusing only on visual clues in those initial images.
(Source: Isisag, 2020)
When two users match, an animated “It’s a Match!” screen featuring their pictures appears, offering them the choice to “Send Message” or “Keep Swiping.” In this sense, using Tinder’s gamified platform, finding a match turns into a little reward.
It provides users with an attitude of readiness to meet people in a controlled way when combined with the option to unmatch a user (before or after a personal meeting) if they never end up being a compatible companion (Sobieraj, and Humphreys, 2021).
1.3 Bumble
Bumble has an age limit of eighteen. However, it can be difficult to police this restriction, and children can readily create accounts by using false information about their age. The lack of trustworthy verification tools in the software makes it easier for children and teenagers to access and utilize it unsupervised (Mashable.com, 2024).
Bumble’s primary purpose of facilitating romantic relationships makes it unsuitable for use by younger users. They may come to discussions, approaches, or offensive or explicit material that could be harmful to their emotional growth and welfare. The Bumble BFF app is still intended for young adults or older, despite its existence. The app’s open nature can attract aggressive people who prey on impressionable adolescents and teenagers who lack security. Using grooming techniques, predators can control the emotions of young users, eventually forcing them into unsafe circumstances. The absence of rigorous monitoring and moderation on the app raises the possibility of such incidents.
Registering for a Bumble account using your phone number or Facebook account is easy. The next step is to create your profile, which includes providing your zodiac sign, fitness level, and other details. You should also configure your match criteria before using Bumble (Mashable.com, 2024). In addition to choosing whether to see men, women, or everyone, you can create “Date Filters” to specify age and location parameters (there’s no explicit option for non-binary or trans people). With a free Bumble account, you can select two of the eleven “Advanced Filters” and filter persons according to other criteria like lifestyle (consuming or smoking, for example) or desired outcome (casual dating, partnership). With an upgraded account, you can configure an unlimited number of Advanced Filters (Menon, 2024).
1.4 The role of social networking sites during romantic relationship dissolution
By staying friends, connecting with mutual acquaintances, or using publicly accessible information, users can see the images and status updates from their former partners even after the relationship ends. Images and status updates can still provide visitors with an adequate overview of someone’s life events after a breakup. In adult social networking sites, 24 percent of Americans have looked up information about someone they once loved. People decide whether to keep tabs on past partners based on the circumstances surrounding the breakup (Finkel, et. al., 2012).
2. Counter Arguments
2.1 Negative aspects of social networking sites during romantic relationships
Social networking sites have been discovered to be an instrument for tracking and regulating in addition to having a favorable effect on interpersonal fulfillment and preservation. Compared to the conventional offline setting, they increase the visibility of one’s love partner’s social setting. Many interactions that would remain private if Tinder and Bumble were not used are accessible via the website (such as open conversations on the account page or the friend List). The capacity to view exchanges (likes or remarks) from people you do not know can be interpreted as a “threat,” which can cause jealousy and lead to monitoring your love partner on Tinder and Bumble. Studies conducted on adult users revealed a correlation between the amount of time they invested in social media platforms and their experiences of hatred on Tinder and Bumble. Researchers discovered a correlation between people’s self-esteem and their sentiments of jealousy regarding their partner’s access to social media platforms. Jealousy, a desire for popularity, and surveillance of behavior were particularly detrimental to those with poor self-esteem. According to the author, there may be a reciprocal relationship between social media use and jealousy, with repeated personal page visits resulting from viewing partners’ Tinder and Bumble data.
2.2 During a relationship teens are most likely to experience the following:
- One-third of teens who have had a romantic relationship report being checked on more than once a day on the internet or via a cell phone by a current or former partner.
- When teens dated, 26% reported that their partner kept an eye on them.
- A former partner of 5 percent of teens reporting dating reported checking up on them more than once per day after their relationship ended.
- Teen daters report that 21% have had their texts read by an ex- or current boyfriend, girlfriend, or partner (Pew Research.org, 2024).
- An average of 18% of teenage daters experience this during their relationship.
- It has been reported by 3% of people who have been text read by a partner after their relationship ended without their permission.
- The internet or text messaging was used to pressure 15% of teens dating (or 5% of all teens) into committing sexual crimes.
- During a relationship, 10% of teen daters experience this (LeFebvre, 2018).
- In 5% of cases, a former partner abused them after a breakup.
Conclusion
Social networking sites are perceived by adolescents differently depending on their romantic experiences in this study. The findings of our study differed from those of previous research among adults, although there were some similarities. Even though adolescents and adults believe being a Tinder and bumble official is not necessarily a sign of a romantic relationship, there is one significant difference between them. We also extend previous studies that reported jealousy within romantic relationships to social networking sites. Teenagers discussed these feelings, as well as their tendency to engage in control behavior, such as monitoring profiles, sharing passwords, and reading messages. In this study, we provide practitioners and educators with a better understanding of how teenagers’ romantic experiences are affected by social networking sites. The result could be the development of strategies for prevention and intervention.
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