This work explores and describes the profiles and strategies created by, especially,
middle-class young individuals from Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (BAMA) on
the geo-social application Tinder to look for sexual and affective contacts among
geographically close people. On the methodological level, the data was obtained
through two ad hoc accounts, which were used to carry out a virtual ethnography
that analyzed 1.500 profiles, and 20 interviews conducted to users. The results were,
that three types of profiles can be distinguished, in accordance to their most
prominent capital (economic, cultural or erotic). In the first, the economic capital
profile highlights images and personal texts showing elegant goods, particularly
tourism capital, and states traveling as their main hobby, passion or identity mark.
The second type, the cultural capital, is characterized by showing off higher
education or university degrees, referring to languages mastered, by using
expressions coming from English and by referring to frequent cultural consumption. In the last one, the erotic capital, textual and visual resources are focused on building
a desirable corporality through portraying seductive physical and/or healthy
attributes and habits, through trendy physical activities or habits related to alternative
or new age philosophies. Finally, on the one hand, it is stated that sex-affective
choices tend to be equaled to immediate consumption choices; on the other hand,
that the management of ‘I’, linked to a regulated, calculated exhibition of themselves
through social networks, exacerbated on dating apps, where the general ‘like’ is not
the only most sought-after reaction; instead, a specific like from a potential new
couple is especially sought-after.
Keywords:
internet, tics, social network, tinder, young individuals, gender, sex-affectivity, virtual ethnography
Author Biographies
Joaquín Linne, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Sociólogo, Doctor en Ciencias Sociales por la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). Investigador del CONICET con sede en el Instituto Gino Germani y Docente de la UBA. Correo electrónico: joaquinlinne@gmail.com
Paula Fernández Lopes, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Socióloga, Doctoranda por la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). Investigadora en formación del CONICET con sede en el Instituto Gino Germani y docente de la UBA. Correo electrónico: paula_dafer@hotmail.com
Linne, J., & Fernández Lopes, P. (2019). Looking for the perfect match. Profiles, experiences and socio-affective expectations of young individuals on tinder. Última Década, 27(51), 96–122. Retrieved from https://ultimadecada.uchile.cl/index.php/UD/article/view/54305
