Dating Apps

In this comprehensive overview of dating app culture, Lik Sam Chan explores the behaviours and dynamics of this contemporary love form, the fundamental nature of online communication and how app users navigate essential interpersonal processes that foster intimacy. By dissecting the psychology behind app design and user motivations, Chan reveals the complex and overlooked ways these platforms shape people’s pursuit of connection, showing that far from being mere tools, dating apps are deeply embedded in broader sexual, racial, and queer politics. Dating Apps examines both the opportunities and challenges faced by female dating app users, while addressing the manifestations of toxic masculinity prevalent on these platforms, the issue of sexual racism on dating apps, and the role of dating apps in both reinforcing and challenging the dynamics of LGBTQ+ communities.Dating Apps draws on empirical examples from both the Global North and Global South, offering perspectives across genders and sexualities, to show that contrary to popular belief, dating apps have not fundamentally transformed the nature of intimacy but instead have revolutionized the ways we pursue it.