Data cultures of mobile dating and hook-up apps

Emerging issues for critical social science research

Bibliographic Data

ID5260933
AuthorsK Albury (0000-0001-9043-8126, Swinburne University of Technology, corresponding author), J Burge (0000-0002-4770-1627, Queensland University of Technology), Ben Light (0000-0002-0038-8979, University of Salford), K Race (0000-0002-0083-5409, The University of Sydney), Rowan Wilken (0000-0002-3022-0675, RMIT University)
Year2017
Volume4
Issue2
Pages205395171772095
Publication date2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBig Data & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2053-9517 • E-ISSN: 2053-9517
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2053951717720950
OpenAlexW2770114489
LanguageEN
Citations received72
References cited45

The ethical and social implications of data mining, algorithmic curation and automation in the context of social media have been of heightened concern for a range of researchers with interests in digital media in recent years, with particular concerns about privacy arising in the context of mobile and locative media. Despite their wide adoption and economic importance, mobile dating apps have received little scholarly attention from this perspective – but they are intense sites of data generation, algorithmic processing, and cross-platform data-sharing; bound up with competing cultures of production, exploitation and use. In this paper, we describe the ways various forms of data are incorporated into, and emerge from, hook-up apps’ business logics, socio-technical arrangements, and cultures of use to produce multiple and intersecting data cultures. We propose a multi-layered research agenda for critical and empirical inquiry into this field, and suggest appropriate conceptual and methodological frameworks for exploring the social and political challenges of data cultures

Data science · Data sharing · Internet privacy · Knowledge management · Social media · Sociology · Sociotechnical system · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access