Dating apps: a literature review

Abstract

ABSTRACT Dating apps have become one of the most prominent and contentious topics in the realm of intimacy among the wider public and academia. Media and communication researchers have examined their uptake across cultural contexts, seeking to address the dynamics between dating apps and social processes. With the knowledge accumulated in this research field, we assemble a comprehensive account of interactions through dating apps. We categorize existing findings about dating apps into three sections: dating apps and their reconfiguration, dating practices and their remediation, and lastly social arrangements and their reformation. These sections together present dating apps as a technological consequence of various social forces that mediate users’ daily practices and social relationships.