The purpose of this thesis was to learn more about geo-social networking applications and how they are used by women to meet sexual partners. Currently, there are no known studies that have looked at heterosexually-oriented geo-social networking applications or at the way women have used these apps for heterosexual sexual encounters. This thesis attempts to begin to bridge this gap in the literature. For the first study, apps were selected based on their appearance in popular media articles about dating applications. Results generally related to online safety concerns, while occasional features were related to sexual safety concerns. Communication options were limited, and apps shared information with users about how far away they were from one another, from half a mile away to 5 miles away, depending on the app. Findings suggest that this is an area in need of more study, as how these apps are used by app users is currently unknown. The second recruited four women aged 18-24 who reported willingly having had sex with a male partner they met over an app. The study found that participants were sharing personally identifying information over apps (full names, phone numbers, etc.), and occasionally meeting partners in private residences for the first time. All participants reported using condoms the first time they had sex with a partner they met over an app. Findings suggest there is much more research required on how individuals meet partners over geo-social networking applications and how to safely navigate these apps.

Using the internet to meet dating partners is increasingly popular and may have ramifications that are not yet fully realized. Although many dating sites have been operating for years, new online dating platforms continue to draw millions of new users. By using a large sample of people who use online dating platforms (n=1,286) we identified similarities and differences in what motivates people to use geosocial apps and dating sites. Motivations previously considered in the literature were supported and brought together in a single theory driven confirmatory factor analysis for each type of dating platform. A motivation to seek amusement was a latent factor unique to geosocial app use. Implications for researchers, clinicians, and dating platform users and developers may include helping users be better matched to others who have similar motivations to improve the online dating experience.

Prior research has found a connection between dispositional factors such as rejection sensitivity and introversion and online dating behaviors including likelihood of use (Blackhart et al., 2014) and experience of use (Finkel et al., 2012; Whitty, 2008). The present study expands upon prior research to examine the relationship between these dispositional factors, and the impact of the possibility of explicit rejection on self-disclosure in participant-created dating app profiles. Adults between the ages of 18 and 60 will be introduced to an online dating app manipulated to contain either high or low potential for obvious rejection. Participants will then be asked to create a personal online profile. Participant perceptions of their own self-disclosure in the self-created profile as well as their disposition (introversion and rejection sensitivity) will be measured. It is hypothesized that rejection sensitive individuals as well as those rating lower in extraversion will report higher levels of self-disclosure in a non-explicit rejection dating app setting in comparison to an explicit rejection setting. The present research has implications for the field’s understanding of the experience of online dating app use for individuals as related to varying dispositional factors.

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Abstract Background: Social media is becoming more prominent each day. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are amongst the top six social media platforms used by Generation Z and Millennials (Dixon, 2023; Ceci, 2023). From a business perspective, it entails that these platforms, as well as social media as a whole, are essential for attracting users’ attention when promoting a product or service. These platforms have changed how people communicate, share information, and behave as consumers. Understanding the factors that affect behaviors on social media platforms is crucial given the growth of niche dating apps that target the Muslim community, such as Muzz. This study intends to examine how TikTok and Instagram advertisements affect how viewers perceive Muzz, its features, expected advantages, and the probability of individuals using the app. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of social media on behaviors towards dating app. This is specified towards Generation Z and Millennials. Ultimately, this study aims to find how this target audience interacts with advertisements and what factors affect their behavior. The findings from this paper can be useful to marketing departments of various companies within the dating app industry as they can begin to improve their marketing strategy to appeal to a new and larger target audience.   Method: The findings from this thesis was conducted through qualitative research including interviews of 10 participants with ages between 19-30 years old. The analysis of these findings was done through a thematic analysis approaching grouping the findings in themes and similarities. Conclusion: The findings and analysis from this report indicate that social media and advertisements presented on social media significantly influence the behaviors of Generation Z and Millennials towards dating apps, specifically Muzz app. The way in which social media has an influence is in relation to three theories/models: Advertising Effectiveness, Consumer Behavior Models and Uses and Gratification Theory. Each of the said models and theories aid in the analysis of how behaviors shift depending on social media presence.

Dating apps are in growing popularity, with 48% of dating app users in the United States being adults under 30 (Pew Research Center, 2020, Figure 5). While dating apps can provide a faster and easier way to meet or message a potential partner, they are also a relatively new platform to experience sexual violence. This thesis aims to explore the frequency of sexual violence experienced via dating apps as well as the specific effects this subtype of sexual violence has on the mental health of college students. Technology facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) includes unwanted sexual advances, sexual harassment, gender/sexuality-based abuse, sexual coercion, and rape that a person may experience due to technology that connected the victim to the perpetrator (Henry & Powell, 2018). While there is limited research on the physical and mental health effects of TFSV, past research includes all forms of technology. By focusing on dating apps, a widely used online platform, this research hopes to fill a gap in the research. The study conducted was of 230 college students at the University of Central Florida. Of all study participants, 144 reported current or past use of dating apps, and 88.8% of users reported at least one instance of sexual violence via dating apps. Overall, greater frequency of TFSV on dating apps was associated with more symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, greater loneliness, less perceived self-control, and lower self-esteem.

This study researches communication 2020-2021 via the Tinder dating app in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a framework of mediatization, uses and gratification theory and affordance theory. Data collection was performed using qualitative interviews via Zoom video calls with respondents based in Sweden and findings were analyzed using thematic analysis.  Results of the study discusses phenomena when the physical world and a mediatized one interlock: even though the Tinder app afforded people to connect during the COVID-19 pandemic, the worlds are not independent of each other. Uncertainty and stress could seep into the dating app practice and create a hindrance to easy communication, even though the Tinder app was trying to accommodate the changing times. The study explores that the dehumanizing aspect of reducing a person to a single attribute and deleting that person is connected to a heightened affordance of gamification of relationships that is connected to deep mediatization, moments of our everyday practices immersed in new kinds of mediated communication. Steered behaviour from the app occurs in the Tinder interface which this paper explores, connected to data-driven decision making, a critical tool allowing mobile app developers to not only figure out customer behaviour but also to design customised products. Connected here is the mediatized interplay between humans and technology. If the Tinder app was hard to set up or navigate, the different needs and gratifications would not be met and users would simply vanish.  This paper argues the Tinder app design encourages speed and has coded distractions to actually work against the perceived gratification of meeting a partner and ultimately rendering the service redundant. The COVID-19 pandemic, this thesis explores, has spurred different generations to adapt to new practices and technologies but that these affordances do not always correlate to new dating app practices such as video dating. A mediatized way of meeting physically has been brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. An additional step has been added to online dating practices, the walk, which has 2 lowered the threshold of the initial date by being perceived as an easier option. A direct consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic connected to online dating. This paper also argues intimacy through media sharing, such as humour and jokes via technology in a mediatized world. Lastly, this paper explores the safety aspects of the Tinder app, connected to catfishing and also gender blindness.

This diploma thesis focuses on the motivations of users to create an account within the location- based mobile dating applications. The work is processed by statistical analysis of already published studies dealing with the same or similar topics. The main target of this paper is to calculate the effect size of individual motives in relation to the sex of the respondents. The diploma thesis starts with description of the history of online dating, specific mobile applications included in my meta-analysis, user behavior in individual stages of using these applications (profile settings, selection of other profiles, communication and its development in time), followed by the methodological part where the meta-analysis itself is desribed, the process of its creation and its weak and strong aspects. In the following chapter the results of the meta-analysis and their interpretation are presented as well as self-reflection of this paper along the recommendations for future researches. Analysis helped to reveal the differences between the sexes and also helped to synthesize the acquired studies dealing with this topis. The most notable influence of gender can be seen in the motivation of casual sex, to a lesser extent in the motivation to seek love, friends, the use of the application because of the ease...

本研究重點欲探討時下人人皆有的心理狀態「寂寞感」、「交友軟體的使用動機」與「自我揭露」行為之間的關係、而「交友軟體品質特性」又如何調節影響「交友軟體使用動機」與「自我揭露」行為。本研究採取網路問卷調查的方式，對於交友App有使用經驗的使用者為主要調查對象，共計307有效問卷進行分析。本研究主要發現如下： 1.本研究的受試者以男性、年齡18-25歲、學歷以大專院校者為最多，感情狀況以未婚族群最多，但是還是有非單身甚至已婚交友用戶；使用交友軟體的時間大多兩年之內，平均下載2.66個交友App軟體，其中最常使用的交友App軟體為Beetalk。受試者平均每週上交友軟體的天數為5.07天，每週花費5.43小時。另外，高達94.1%的受試者曾經在交友App平台上與陌生人進一步用其他通訊軟體、社群媒體互動，並有88.9%的受試者曾約現實碰面。 2.寂寞感程度可顯著的正向預測交友軟體使用動機中的日常社交、社會逃避以及尋愛之三個構面。 3.寂寞感程度可顯著的正向預測自我揭露中的誠實度、數量以及正負向之三個構面。 4.關於交友軟體使用動機(日常社交、社會逃避、尋愛)與自我揭露(誠實度、數量、正負向)之間的關係：交友軟體使用動機中日常社交、社會逃避與尋愛之三個構面皆可顯著預測自我揭露中的誠實度：當日常社交和社會逃避動機越高時，自我揭露中的誠實度越高；但是當尋愛動機越高時，自我揭露中的誠實度越低。交友使用動機中日常社交和尋愛之二個構面皆可顯著預測自我揭露中的數量：當日常社交動機越高時，自我揭露中的數量越高；但當尋愛動機越高時，自我揭露中的數量越低。交友使用動機中日常社交之構面可顯著正向預測自我揭露中的正負向。 5.交友軟體品質特性(使用者介面、安全性、形象聲譽、會員素質、尋愛達成率)對交友軟體使用動機與自我揭露的調節效果中，僅只有尋愛達成率對交友軟體使用動機和自我揭露產生調節效果。 6.交友軟體使用動機中僅有日常社交之構面對於寂寞感程度與自我揭露有中介效果。 / The purpose of this study is to explore how “loneliness” which is widely prevalent throughout the society affects the motives of using online dating applications and the behavior of self-disclosure. Furthermore, how the quality of online dating apps operates in between the motives of using online dating apps and the behavior of self- disclosure. Online survey was conducted and 307 respondents completed the questionnaire. The research results are presented as follow: 1.Most of the respondents in the study are male, aged from 18 to 25, graduated from college and are currently single. Still, there are some of them in a relationship and even married. Subjects mostly have been used the dating apps less than 2 years, and averagely downloaded 2.66 dating apps. Furthermore, the most popular dating apps is Beetalk. Respondents use dating apps 5.07 days a week and 5.43 hours a week in average. Besides, there are 94.1% of the respondents have used other social media or social apps to communicate with other users they met in dating apps and 88.9% of the respondents have actually met up in real life. 2.Different degree of loneliness have statistically significant and positive predictable effect on the motives of using online dating apps including “Daily Social Needs”, “Escape to Virtual World”, and “Romance”. 3.Different degree of loneliness have statistically significant and positive predictable effect on the different aspects of self-disclosure including: Honesty, Quantity, and Positivity. 4.The motives of using online dating apps including “Daily Social Needs”, “Escape to Virtual World”, “Romance” have statistically significant and predictable effect on the honesty of self-disclosure. “Daily Social Needs” and “Romance” of motives have significant and predicable effect on the quantity of self-disclosure. Only “Daily social needs” have statistically significant and predictable effect on the positivity of self-disclosure. 5.Only the quality of “Love Achievement Rate” of online dating apps have operation effects in between the motives of using online dating apps and the behavior of self- disclosure. 6.Only “Daily social needs” of motives of using online dating apps have mediation effects between loneliness and the behavior of self disclosure.