Week 7: Social Design
I think dating apps strive to balance being a platform for strangers meeting each other, and also creating a free-form place for people to “take it from there” and get out of the way for solid relationships that form. The potential to go from strangers to loved ones gives these apps a challenge to understand and nurture these interactions. While there’s a prescribed way of using these apps, anyone can create an anonymous profile without their face, including their interests, and find someone to chat with.
I think this feature of tinder exemplifies principle 7.11B/12:
Having a tough time coming up with a first line is not what I would call a problem. You really lose the point of messaging someone by having a machine generate what you’re going to say. Anyone who uses these lines is basically saying that the person they are messaging is not worthwhile enough to take the time meaningfully craft an opening message expressing their interest.
Meeting people on the internet does not need to mean that our interactions are “less human”. There are humans behind each phone screen, but we lost sight of that in the swipe. Humans are reduced to a photo to quickly decide left or right on in a flury of swipes. Apps like this capitalize on swipe addiction to monetize their apps for free users and insert ads, as this .
More thoughtful, artful, and intentional designs arose in response to the tinder epidemic, like bumble, which tries to make the experience more empowering/protected for women requiring them to make the first move. If designers are evolutionary strategists, dating apps are definitely an interesting case study since sexual selection has been greatly altered by this technology. This is overplayed a bit, and I would hope that people aren’t drastically changing their standards in response to this new platform. However, the trend in human behavior towards needing more stimulation and therefore increased impulsivity that apps like these exacerbate definitely creates a new behavior that changed the entire landscape of dating and what people expect from eachother.