Tinder’s life source is its audience. Without its active prosumerism and participatory culture, it would cease to exist. Participatory Culture is defined, “where members feel some degree of social connection with one another” (Jenkins, 2006). The audience feel apart of a larger community as well as deep connections to other users they interact with. “In terms of personal development, identity, expression and their social consequences– participation, social capital, civic culture- these are the activities that serve to network today’s younger generation” (Jenkins, 2006)
Relationships are formed with Tinder and through Tinder. The user exerts a sense of hope and faith within Tinder, they are optimistic, excited and Tinder delivers. The user then creates an interaction with another user, heightening their experience and creating a dependency/sense of community with the app for social reassurance, “We have become a culture of people that are almost completely dependant on technology. The technologies that started out as aides to our existence have become vital to our everyday lives” (Digital Trends Staff, 2003).
Tinder was designed a dating app, with Co-Founder, Sean Rad, describing it as a “digital extension of our instinct to connect on a deeper level with one another” (Shandrow, 2014). However, audiences share the ideology of using it for casual hook ups. Tinder “opens up chances to meet guys that you wouldn’t have had the chance to otherwise” (Declamatory, 2014). The target audience is for young adults who are mature enough to make sensible decisions, however, you only have to be 13 years old to register for the app (Tinder Terms of Use, 2013). Users interpret Tinder differently than anticipated and has been dubbed nothing more than a ‘shallow hook up app.’ “People don’t think of [Tinder] as online dating, they think of it as a game,” (Sandrow, 2014), never the less, did not alter the success of the app, due to audience engagement.
The success, ideologies and distribution of any technology is up to you, the audience, because without us, they would cease to exist.
References
Henry Jenkins, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:Media Education for the 21st Century Part 1, http://henryjenkins.org/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html#sthash.gaqNUjWI.dpuf, 20/10/06, accessed 3/02/14
Declamatory, Reddit, http://www.reddit.com/r/AskWomen/comments/1xdbg9/why_do_you_use_tinder/, March 2014, accessed 1/04/14
Kim Lachance Shandrow, Entrepreneur.com. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232211, 17/03/14, accessed 2/04/14
Tinder, Terms of Use, http://www.gotinder.com/terms/, last updated 26/03/14, accessed 2/04/14
Digital Trends Staff, “Dependency on Technology,” http://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/dependency-on-technology/#ixzz2xiNyG3FQ, written 2003, accessed 2/04/14
A Worldly Addiction 