| dc.description.abstract | With dating applications (apps) becoming an ever more popular way for young adults of all genders and sexual orientations to meet one another, it is increasingly important to understand how these apps are being used for partner-seeking. In this dissertation, I collect and analyze data in two stages: first, via the app walkthrough method, from the advertising materials and profile construction pages of each of four popular dating apps, and second, via sixty in-depth interviews with current and former dating app users regarding their experiences with the apps. I analyze these data using theories from science and technology studies in conjunction with sexual fields theory and social exchange theory. In doing so, I am able to demonstrate first how individual dating apps construct unique sexual fields in which different forms of capital are differentially valued. I am then able to show how those different forms of capital may be displayed and evaluated based on the profiles app users create and the assumptions which underlie them. Finally, I show how that capital is exchanged across three different exchange structures at different phases of app use, and how the transitions between those exchange structures occur. This work has implications regarding the increasing commodification of the partner-seeking process; the perpetuation of social inequalities and prejudices via digitally-mediated courtship; and the impact of dating applications on mental health. It also expands on sexual fields and exchange theories, particularly by putting the two in conversation with one another to provide the most thorough perspective on the role of capital in digitally-mediated courtship. | |
