Dating Apps Front Stage and Back Stage: How Indonesian Represent Themselves on Tinder
Keywords:
dramaturgy theory, online dating application, self-presentation, tinder
Abstract
Tinder, which dominates the market in Western countries and targets mobile daters, has recently taken over the dating scene on a global scale. The development of the Internet has changed how we initiate and maintain interpersonal relationships. The dominance of dating apps is also evident in Southeast Asia, with nearly half of Indonesian respondents using dating apps. Dating apps profiles are how people introduce themselves to other people, and user-written profiles on dating apps enable users to represent themselves to potential matches on their own. Users may be compelled to provide information that they think will benefit them in using dating apps to achieve their goals. Using Erving Goffman's dramaturgy theory, this study aimed to look at the front stage and back stage of Indonesian Tinder user. By using convenience sampling to explore through the tinder profiles, 11 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and content analysis of Tinder profiles in Indonesia were conducted. The findings indicate that users might try to control the impression they create and can be seen through their photos, biographies, interests, and connected accounts. It can also provide information about their fashion and etiquette, while their bio can provide information on how they use languages. Most of the participants comply to Indonesian culture and beliefs when it comes to their profiles since it is more socially acceptable, and participants are consistent with their Tinder profiles and how they are behind the profiles.
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Chua, T. H. H., & Chang, L. (2016). Follow me and like my beautiful selfies: Singapore teenage girls’ engagement in self-presentation and peer comparison on social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 190–197.
Cobb, C., & Kohno, T. (2017). How Public Is My Private Life?: Privacy in Online Dating. https://doi.org/10.1145/3038912.3052592
David, G., & Cambre, C. (2016). Screened Intimacies: Tinder and the Swipe Logic. Social Media + Society, 2(2), 2056305116641976. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116641976
Duguay, S. (2017). Dressing up Tinderella: interrogating authenticity claims on the mobile dating app Tinder. Information, Communication & Society, 20(3), 351–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1168471
Ellison, N., Hancock, J., & Toma, C. (2012). Profile as promise: A framework for conceptualizing veracity in online dating self-presentations. New Media & Society, 14. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444811410395
Fauzi, E. P., Fasta, F., Nathan, R. J., & Jeong, S. W. (2020). Modern Muslimah in Media: a Study of Reception Analysis in “Saliha†Program on Net Tv. Aspiration Journal, 1(2), 135–162.
Ferdiana, C., Susanto, E. H., & Aulia, S. (2020). Penggunaan Media Sosial Tinder dan Fenomena Pergaulan Bebas di Indonesia. Koneksi, 4(1), 112–118.
Ferwerda, B., Schedl, M., & Tkalcic, M. (2016). Using instagram picture features to predict users’ personality. International Conference on Multimedia Modeling, 850–861.
Finkel, E. J., Eastwick, P. W., Karney, B. R., Reis, H. T., & Sprecher, S. (2012). Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(1), 3–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612436522
Gewirtz-Meydan, A., & Ayalon, L. (2018). Forever young: Visual representations of gender and age in online dating sites for older adults. Journal of Women & Aging, 30(6), 484–502. https://doi.org/10.1080/08952841.2017.1330586
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Anchor Books.
Hancock, J. T., & Toma, C. L. (2009). Putting your best face forward: The accuracy of online dating photographs. Journal of Communication, 59(2), 367–386.
Jin, Y., Tian, Y., & Wu, H. (2022). The Presentation of Self on Online Social Network Platforms from the Perspective of Dramaturgical Theory. Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Social Development and Media Communication (SDMC 2021), 1112–1117. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220105.204
Kallis, R. (2020). Understanding the motivations for using Tinder. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 21, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459435.2020.1744697
Kingwell, M. (2017). Bored, Addicted, or Both: How We Use Social Media Now. Social Media and Your Brain: Web-Based Communication Is Changing How We Think and Express Ourselves, 15–35.
Koestner, R., & Wheeler, L. (1988). Self-Presentation in Personal Advertisements: The Influence of Implicit Notions of Attraction and Role Expectations. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 5(2), 149–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/026540758800500202
Kramer, N., & Winter, S. (2008). Impression Management 2.0: The Relationship of Self-Esteem, Extraversion, Self-Efficacy, and Self-Presentation Within Social Networking Sites. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 20, 106. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105.20.3.106
Leary, M. R., & Kowalski, R. M. (1990). Impression management: A literature review and two-component model. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 34–47.
Lidwina, A. (2021, February 24). Tinder, Aplikasi Kencan Daring Paling Banyak Digunakan di Indonesia. Databoks.
McGloin, R., & Denes, A. (2016). Too hot to trust: Examining the relationship between attractiveness, trustworthiness, and desire to date in online dating. New Media & Society, 20(3), 919–936. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816675440
McNeill, L. S. (2018). Fashion and women’s self-concept: a typology for self-fashioning using clothing. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal.
Merunková, L., & Šlerka, J. (2019). Goffman’s Theory as a Framework for Analysis of Self Presentation on Online Social Networks. Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology, 13, 243. https://doi.org/10.5817/MUJLT2019-2-5
Miller, H. (1995). The Presentation of Self in Electronic Life: Goffman on the Internet.
Ostermaierâ€Grabow, A., & Linek, S. B. (2019). Communication and selfâ€presentation behavior on academic social networking sites: An exploratory case study on profiles and discussion threads on ResearchGate. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 70(10), 1153–1164.
Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The Presentation of Self in Virtual Life: Characteristics of Personal Home Pages. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79(3), 643–660. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900207900307
Sedgewick, J. R., Flath, M. E., & Elias, L. J. (2017). Presenting Your Best Self(ie): The Influence of Gender on Vertical Orientation of Selfies on Tinder. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00604
Sharabi, L. L. (2020). Exploring How Beliefs About Algorithms Shape (Offline) Success in Online Dating: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Investigation. Communication Research, 48(7), 931–952. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650219896936
Sharabi, L. L., & Caughlin, J. P. (2018). Deception in online dating: Significance and implications for the first offline date. New Media & Society, 21(1), 229–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818792425
Stancheva, T. (2021, November 1). How Many People are on Tinder in 2021? TechJury.
Theo Wayt. (2021, November 16). Tinder co-founder lands in heated exchange with Barry Diller’s company lawyer. New York Post.
Timmermans, E., & de Caluwé, E. (2017). To Tinder or not to Tinder, that’s the question: An individual differences perspective to Tinder use and motives. Personality and Individual Differences, 110, 74–79. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.01.026
Tinder. (2021). Signing Up and Getting Started. Tinder.
Toma, C., Hancock, J., & Ellison, N. (2008). Separating Fact From Fiction: An Examination of Deceptive Self-Presentation in Online Dating Profiles. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1023–1036. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208318067
Tong, S. T., Corriero, E. F., Wibowo, K. A., Makki, T. W., & Slatcher, R. B. (2019). Self-presentation and impressions of personality through text-based online dating profiles: A lens model analysis. New Media & Society, 22(5), 875–895. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819872678
Tufekci, Z. (2008). GROOMING, GOSSIP, FACEBOOK AND MYSPACE. Information, Communication & Society, 11(4), 544–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180801999050
Ward, J. (2016). What are you doing on Tinder? Impression management on a matchmaking mobile app. Information, Communication & Society, 20, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1252412
Yi, D. (2015, April 15). Tinder hookups skyrocketed 300% at Coachella’s first weekend. Mashable.
Zytko, D., Jones, Q., & Grandhi, S. A. (2014). Impression management and formation in online dating systems. ECIS 2014 Proceedings - 22nd European Conference on Information Systems.
Cobb, C., & Kohno, T. (2017). How Public Is My Private Life?: Privacy in Online Dating. https://doi.org/10.1145/3038912.3052592
David, G., & Cambre, C. (2016). Screened Intimacies: Tinder and the Swipe Logic. Social Media + Society, 2(2), 2056305116641976. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116641976
Duguay, S. (2017). Dressing up Tinderella: interrogating authenticity claims on the mobile dating app Tinder. Information, Communication & Society, 20(3), 351–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1168471
Ellison, N., Hancock, J., & Toma, C. (2012). Profile as promise: A framework for conceptualizing veracity in online dating self-presentations. New Media & Society, 14. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444811410395
Fauzi, E. P., Fasta, F., Nathan, R. J., & Jeong, S. W. (2020). Modern Muslimah in Media: a Study of Reception Analysis in “Saliha†Program on Net Tv. Aspiration Journal, 1(2), 135–162.
Ferdiana, C., Susanto, E. H., & Aulia, S. (2020). Penggunaan Media Sosial Tinder dan Fenomena Pergaulan Bebas di Indonesia. Koneksi, 4(1), 112–118.
Ferwerda, B., Schedl, M., & Tkalcic, M. (2016). Using instagram picture features to predict users’ personality. International Conference on Multimedia Modeling, 850–861.
Finkel, E. J., Eastwick, P. W., Karney, B. R., Reis, H. T., & Sprecher, S. (2012). Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(1), 3–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612436522
Gewirtz-Meydan, A., & Ayalon, L. (2018). Forever young: Visual representations of gender and age in online dating sites for older adults. Journal of Women & Aging, 30(6), 484–502. https://doi.org/10.1080/08952841.2017.1330586
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Anchor Books.
Hancock, J. T., & Toma, C. L. (2009). Putting your best face forward: The accuracy of online dating photographs. Journal of Communication, 59(2), 367–386.
Jin, Y., Tian, Y., & Wu, H. (2022). The Presentation of Self on Online Social Network Platforms from the Perspective of Dramaturgical Theory. Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Social Development and Media Communication (SDMC 2021), 1112–1117. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220105.204
Kallis, R. (2020). Understanding the motivations for using Tinder. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 21, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459435.2020.1744697
Kingwell, M. (2017). Bored, Addicted, or Both: How We Use Social Media Now. Social Media and Your Brain: Web-Based Communication Is Changing How We Think and Express Ourselves, 15–35.
Koestner, R., & Wheeler, L. (1988). Self-Presentation in Personal Advertisements: The Influence of Implicit Notions of Attraction and Role Expectations. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 5(2), 149–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/026540758800500202
Kramer, N., & Winter, S. (2008). Impression Management 2.0: The Relationship of Self-Esteem, Extraversion, Self-Efficacy, and Self-Presentation Within Social Networking Sites. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 20, 106. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105.20.3.106
Leary, M. R., & Kowalski, R. M. (1990). Impression management: A literature review and two-component model. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 34–47.
Lidwina, A. (2021, February 24). Tinder, Aplikasi Kencan Daring Paling Banyak Digunakan di Indonesia. Databoks.
McGloin, R., & Denes, A. (2016). Too hot to trust: Examining the relationship between attractiveness, trustworthiness, and desire to date in online dating. New Media & Society, 20(3), 919–936. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816675440
McNeill, L. S. (2018). Fashion and women’s self-concept: a typology for self-fashioning using clothing. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal.
Merunková, L., & Šlerka, J. (2019). Goffman’s Theory as a Framework for Analysis of Self Presentation on Online Social Networks. Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology, 13, 243. https://doi.org/10.5817/MUJLT2019-2-5
Miller, H. (1995). The Presentation of Self in Electronic Life: Goffman on the Internet.
Ostermaierâ€Grabow, A., & Linek, S. B. (2019). Communication and selfâ€presentation behavior on academic social networking sites: An exploratory case study on profiles and discussion threads on ResearchGate. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 70(10), 1153–1164.
Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The Presentation of Self in Virtual Life: Characteristics of Personal Home Pages. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79(3), 643–660. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900207900307
Sedgewick, J. R., Flath, M. E., & Elias, L. J. (2017). Presenting Your Best Self(ie): The Influence of Gender on Vertical Orientation of Selfies on Tinder. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00604
Sharabi, L. L. (2020). Exploring How Beliefs About Algorithms Shape (Offline) Success in Online Dating: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Investigation. Communication Research, 48(7), 931–952. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650219896936
Sharabi, L. L., & Caughlin, J. P. (2018). Deception in online dating: Significance and implications for the first offline date. New Media & Society, 21(1), 229–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818792425
Stancheva, T. (2021, November 1). How Many People are on Tinder in 2021? TechJury.
Theo Wayt. (2021, November 16). Tinder co-founder lands in heated exchange with Barry Diller’s company lawyer. New York Post.
Timmermans, E., & de Caluwé, E. (2017). To Tinder or not to Tinder, that’s the question: An individual differences perspective to Tinder use and motives. Personality and Individual Differences, 110, 74–79. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.01.026
Tinder. (2021). Signing Up and Getting Started. Tinder.
Toma, C., Hancock, J., & Ellison, N. (2008). Separating Fact From Fiction: An Examination of Deceptive Self-Presentation in Online Dating Profiles. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1023–1036. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208318067
Tong, S. T., Corriero, E. F., Wibowo, K. A., Makki, T. W., & Slatcher, R. B. (2019). Self-presentation and impressions of personality through text-based online dating profiles: A lens model analysis. New Media & Society, 22(5), 875–895. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819872678
Tufekci, Z. (2008). GROOMING, GOSSIP, FACEBOOK AND MYSPACE. Information, Communication & Society, 11(4), 544–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180801999050
Ward, J. (2016). What are you doing on Tinder? Impression management on a matchmaking mobile app. Information, Communication & Society, 20, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1252412
Yi, D. (2015, April 15). Tinder hookups skyrocketed 300% at Coachella’s first weekend. Mashable.
Zytko, D., Jones, Q., & Grandhi, S. A. (2014). Impression management and formation in online dating systems. ECIS 2014 Proceedings - 22nd European Conference on Information Systems.
Published
2022-11-20
Section
Original Articles
Copyright (c) 2022 Indra Prawira, Muhammad Farel Salahudin, Jo Ellaine Sumeisey
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
