Online Dating & Social Media

This blog post is in response to a reading by Ellison, Heino, & Gibbs for Gender & Sexuality course at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia with instructor Margret Mayhew.

Source: Ellison, N, Heino R & Gibbs J 2006, ‘Managing Impressions Online: Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol.11, pp.415-441.

In this study, researchers look into how participants on online dating sites present themselves in order to find a significant other. The information gathered was given through telephone interviews about the online dating experiences and perceptions of thirty-four participants of a popular online dating site. According to the abstract of the study, the results suggest "that participants attended small cues online, mediated the tension between impression management pressures and the desire to present an authentic sense of through tactics such as creating a profile that reflected their "idea self" and attempted to establish the veracity of their identity claims.

 

I think that the common theoretical perspective in sociology called symbolic interactionism, I can be used to analyse the data presented in this study. This theory explores how subjective meanings behind what people may impose on things that we interact with in everyday life such as people’s behaviour, events, and even objects. To my understanding, this basically means that individuals in society interpret each other’s self-presentation or behaviour and these interpretations form the social constructions of our society.

To me this idea is demonstrated in the reading because online participants attempt to attract desirable partners based off of how they see themselves in the future and how they want they want the viewer to interpret them online. I believe that they (the participants) do this by portraying possessed traits that society has constructed as desirable by a future mate.

I think the idea of trying to seem attractive or desirable by conforming to the suggested constructions of society is common thing that a lot of online daters do, to trap, I mean meet someone who is attractive, successful, and the ultimate "good catch."

 

Since we’re on the topic of online dating, here’s a funny youtube video on “the top 10 dating tips for women.” Check it out for laughs and give your opinions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay9gh0Y92pQ