Paper short abstract:

Algorithms subtly shape the way we interact and form relationships in different digital environments. To understand how these black boxes influence our social interactions, we must first consider how they shape the understanding and presenting of our mediated selves.

Paper long abstract:

Mobile dating apps (MDAs) are smartphone applications that bring people together for romantic, sexual, and friendly meetups. With their primary focus on dating and intimate connections, MDAs constitute a fascinating window on discourses around gender, sexuality, and intimacy. The different categorization features within these apps serve as clues that users utilize to shape and understand their own identities, as well as to present themselves to other daters. At the same time, these features serve as data collection strategies for mobile dating platforms, which use, analyze, and sell this data for, on one hand, platform functioning, on the other hand, corporate interests. In the complex interplay between platforms-users-algorithms, gender and sexuality data play a central role in the recommendation of profiles to users. However, the inner workings of these algorithms are often shrouded in secrecy, making it challenging to understand how they influence users’ experience. The paper examines how mobile dating apps (MDAs) construct gender and sexual identity for a user registering a new profile, and discusses implications around gender, sexuality, and intimacy, drawing from research using the walkthrough method, an ethnographic approach to the architecture and mechanisms of digital environments, and a diary study with Italians of diverse gender and sexual identities.