[Air-L] Online Dating Studies

Wed Feb 24 10:55:07 PST 2010

Sorry, my second post on this - I'm back from my meeting :O)

The thing I'd love to see more on (pardon the punn!) is around the
structural differences of different sites that facilitate different kinds of
romantic/sexual relationships.  I'm writing some stuff for a book that
touches on this.  For example on Gaydar - you can, amongst other things, be
'a couple' looking for 'a couple' - the conception of 'it being okay' to
have group sex is written into the site, you choose to be
active/versatile/passive too - these, in my experience - challenge certain
norms/heteronormativity...   I have contacts with a BDSM community and when
I get the time, I'm dying to do some work with them as their internet
practices/structures are really interesting too... For example, subs often
use lowercase and doms capitals...  GRINDR the app for the iPhone is also
interesting - it affords internet dating/hooking up and enrolls GPS
technology - there's definitely something about moving from cybersex to sex
in the physcial world too.

I also think this stuff all relates back to networking research more
generally....  We need studies of more sites that are 'out there' as it were
as compared to mainstream sites such as Facebook - especially if we think
about the structures/cultures stuff.  I've seen several studies that aim to
theorize from a study of Facebook which result in theorizations that could
be improved if other sites that one might consider 'non-mainstream' had been
thrown into the mix.  This kind of links to the point Nancy Baym made at
AOIR last year when she talked of us needing more multi-site studies - I
completely agree....

Right, I'll stop now!

B.

On 24/2/10 18:26, "Erhardt Graeff" <erhardt at gmail.com> wrote:

> Andrew's work looks great. I'm impressed by the research out there. If
> anyone has other sources, we're still interested.
> 
> Additionally, can anyone think of any specific practical questions about
> online dating website design and culture that would be fun to discuss? How
> about questions that are tough to research but universally interesting?
> 
> Best,
> Erhardt
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 1:13 PM, Dan Perkel
> <dperkel at ischool.berkeley.edu>wrote:
> 
>> For very careful analysis of the social-pyschology of online dating and
>> relationship formation, I'd recommend the work of Andrew Fiore.
>> 
>> See: 
>> http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~atf/publications.php<http://people.ischoo
>> l.berkeley.edu/%7Eatf/publications.php>
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Dan
>> 
>> ------------------------------------
>> Dan Perkel
>> PhD Candidate
>> School of Information, Berkeley Center for New Media
>> UC Berkeley
>> http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~dperkel<http://people.ischool.berkeley.ed
>> u/%7Edperkel>
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 6:32 AM, Ben Light <B.Light at salford.ac.uk> wrote:
>> 
>>> I've done some work on Gaydar - it's published in Information Technology
>>> and
>>> People, the European Journal of Information Systems and the International
>>> Journal of Information Management (some is along with Gordon Fletcher and
>>> Alison Adam) - you can find the papers at www.benlight.org or email me.
>>> 
>>> You should also check out Sharif Mowlabocus' work as well as he's worked
>>> in
>>> a similar area.  There's also the book, 'love online' which might be of
>>> some
>>> use too and John Campbell's 'Getting it on online'.  Also check out
>>> Shoshana
>>> Magnets stuff on Suicide Girls in New Media and Society.  And I think it
>>> was
>>> Nathalia Livia that did a study of the French Minitel System which is
>>> related - the paper is in sexualities I think..  I cite it in the Gaydar
>>> stuff.  Oh also check the citations in the gaydar paper for, I think it's
>>> Arvidson in New Media and Society on Planet Out too...  I also cite a NMS
>>> article of John Campbell's too that might be of interest...
>>> 
>>> Oh also look at Kayla Hales at Penn State - she published some early work
>>> on
>>> CMC and relationship maintenance in a special issue of Information
>>> Communication, Ethics and Society (2009 - vol 7, no 1).
>>> 
>>> Sorry this is garbled, dashing between meetings :O)
>>> 
>>> Ben.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Ben Light
>>> Professor of Digital Media
>>> Communication, Cultural and Media Studies Research Centre
>>> Associate Head of School - Research and Innovation
>>> School of Media, Music and Performance
>>> The University of Salford
>>> Adelphi House
>>> Salford
>>> M3 6EN
>>> 
>>> www.smmp.salford.ac.uk
>>> www.ccm.salford.ac.uk
>>> www.benlight.org
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 24/2/10 09:08, "Leurs, K.H.A. (Koen)" <K.H.A.Leurs at uu.nl> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Dear Erhardt,
>>>> 
>>>> I recently came across a project carried out at the Oxford Internet
>>> Institute
>>>> called "Me, My Spouse and the Internet: Meeting, Dating and Marriage in
>>> the
>>>> Digital Age".
>>>> You can find more about it here:
>>> http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/?id=47,
>>>> including links to publications.
>>>> 
>>>> I would be interested in learning about the use of Instant Messaging and
>>>> social networking in dating, as I am currently looking at the
>>> performance of
>>>> gender and sexuality in IM.
>>>> 
>>>> Kind regards,
>>>> 
>>>> Koen.
>>>> 
>>>> Koen Leurs | Aio / PhD student
>>>> OGC (Research Institute for Culture and History)|
>>>> Utrecht University, the Netherlands | Janskerkhof 13, 3512 BL Utrecht |
>>> # 2.02
>>>> | (+31) 30 253 78 59 | (+31) 6 13108803 |
>>>> 
>>>> Current project: http://www.uu.nl/wiredup/
>>>> 
>>>> Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
>>>> Van: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org namens Erhardt Graeff
>>>> Verzonden: wo 24-2-2010 5:45
>>>> Aan: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>>>> CC: Jonathan Beilin
>>>> Onderwerp: [Air-L] Online Dating Studies
>>>> 
>>>> I'm preparing to co-lead a core conversation at SXSW on online dating
>>>> websites and trends. We've been looking at academic work like Judith
>>>> Donath's as well as the more cheeky but practical research on the
>>> OkTrends
>>>> blog from OkCupid. Does anyone know of good case studies of particular
>>>> online dating websites, or historical studies of trends in online
>>> dating?
>>>> Sources focusing on website design as well as sociological and
>>> psychological
>>>> aspects would all be helpful.
>>>> 
>>>> Additionally, any questions about online dating sites and culture that
>>> you
>>>> might be interested in exploring the answers to, or simply discussing,
>>> would
>>>> be great.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Erhardt
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ----
>>>> Erhardt Graeff
>>>> 717.919.3145 | @erhardt | http://erhardtgraeff.com
>>>> http://bettergrads.org |
>>> http://goodworkproject.org/research/digital.htm
>>>> http://webecologyproject.org | http://awesomefoundation.org
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>> 
>> 
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