Behaving disgracefully: the impact of internet dating site use upon the identities of women in middle age

This is a qualitative study that explores the experiences of a group of thirty middle- aged women who, after the loss of a long-term relationship, were using Internet dating sites to find heterosexual relationships and enjoy casual nights out. The research follows women on their journey through their experiences of using dating sites, interacting with men online, and eventually meeting men for offline encounters. The central theme of the thesis is the ways in which women understood and negotiated their identities as single, middle-aged women and how they incorporated often sudden and unexpected change into a linear life story of the self. Central to identity construction were issues of the ageing self over time, sexuality and femininity (and the intersection of all three), which were brought into sharp focus for women entering the dating scene in the middle years. Their experiences of interacting with men, both on and off the dating sites, reveals how women understood, circumvented and challenged heterosexual norms of behaviour and sexuality for the middle-aged woman that were perceived to regulate and restrict their behaviour and use of social space. Importantly however, alongside women's accounts of empowerment as single women sat the almost compulsive desire for male company that fuelled their intensive use of the dating sites. Women were enabled by the dating sites to have many new adventures, date a wide variety of men and enjoy many sexual encounters. This change in behaviour was often perceived as a fundamental challenge to the self as many women understood their dating behaviour as 'acting out of character'. The research shows however, that despite the risk of being placed as 'unrespectable' in the eyes of others, women nevertheless embraced their opportunity to behave 'disgracefully'

Seeing the Invisible: Understanding the Implications of Social Media Invisible Responses for Well-Being and Relational Development

Large swathes of current social media scholarship monolithically treats browsing behaviors as passive behaviors, per the passive versus active behaviors approach to social media activities. Such labeling fails to capture the numerous ways that people respond to social media sharing beyond visible clicks on the platform, such as relational distancing or switching channels to respond. Moreover, understanding what people do with information seen on social media platforms and how they respond to such information is integral to theorizing the implications of using these platforms. My dissertation tackles these challenges by first proposing the concept of invisible responses to unify the diverse approaches of responding possible to social media. Specifically, I define invisible responses as reactions to social media sharing by viewers that are invisible along any of the following dimensions: (1) to the original platform, (2) to the sharer, and (3) to the viewer’s imagined audience of third parties. The dissertation presents three empirical studies to investigate the different dimensions of invisible responses. Study 1 examines viewing time and visible clicks while browsing Facebook feeds. While viewing time—a proxy for visual attention—is largely invisible, public feedback of clicks are visible to everyone. Study 1 reveals that the combination of these two types of responses, along with the amount of social content in feeds, can predict important well-being outcome, namely self-esteem. Study 2 explores how people practice self-presentation and relational maintenance in an environment where responses are invisible to third parties. These findings suggest that, given responses that are invisible to third parties, sharers feel lower self-presentational pressure. However, what remains unchanged compared to public feedback is the emphasis on the amount of attention and effort as signaling investment in a relationship. Finally, Study 3 investigates when and why people would make their reception of a social media post invisible or not to the original sharer of the post. Once again, the findings underscore that sending signals of attention and effort is meaningful for relational maintenance. Together, the studies in this dissertation illustrate the importance of invisible responses in understanding well-being and relational outcomes of social media use, as well as opening up future avenues for research. Specifically, responding to the research agenda outlined by the communication visibility theory (Treem, Leonardi, & van den Hooff, 2020), I highlight questions around the management of visibility on social media.PHDInformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162891/1/dieptl_1.pd

Linguistic expression and perception of personality in online dating texts and their effect on attraction

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Online daters report difficulties, frustration and anxiety in conveying their desired impression of themselves and from their lack of ability in perceiving another dater’s personality accurately. There is a lack of research on how expression of personality traits in profiles impacts on perception and on assessments of attractiveness. This thesis aims to fill this gap by exploring the expression and perception of personality traits in online dating profile texts, and to examine whether textually expressed personality affects attractiveness. The first two studies employed a linguistic and content analysis approach to determine how personality was expressed in dating profiles across different dating platforms and a comparison creative story text. There was considerable variation in expression indicating that language may not be a reliable indicator of personality. A lens model approach, using Funder’s Realistic Accuracy Model, was taken in the third study where accuracy of personality perception was examined in two contexts to determine whether dating profiles provided more salient trait-related cues to personality. The linguistic and content cues utilised by judges in making personality assessments were investigated. While some accuracy of perception was possible for emotional stability in online dating profiles, it was context dependent and unreliable, and few cues were utilised accurately. The effects of actual and perceived personality, and similarity of personality, on attractiveness were investigated and had not been examined previously in this context. This research shows that actual traits and similarity only affect attraction when it is perceivable, whereas perceived traits and similarity can affect attraction without accurate perception. This thesis illustrates the complexity of accuracy of interpersonal perception in text, and how context drives a considerable amount of the variation in achievement of accuracy. Additionally, the results offer some practical implications for online daters

Uncertainty In Online Dating

Relationship initiation is a moment typically characterized by high uncertainty, and online dating platforms have the potential to heighten uncertainty and thus deeply affect relationship formation dynamics. While previous research has focused on other-uncertainty and on its reduction through information-seeking, this qualitative study adopts Babrow’s (2001) problematic integration (PI) theory to expand our understanding of uncertainty in online dating beyond other-focused uncertainty, by exploring the meanings and sources of uncertainty in online dating, how uncertainty is appraised, and what strategies daters adopt to cope with it. Data obtained from 13 semi-structured interviews with active online daters was analyzed using thematic analysis. The analysis uncovered multiple sources of uncertainty related to the self, the other, and the relationship, and multiple epistemological and ontological meanings daters ascribed to uncertainty that validated PI’s perspective. Daters often appraised uncertainty as undesirable, but they also appeared willing to tolerate unsolved uncertainty they deemed acceptable; furthermore, uncertainty was not always salient in their interactions, suggesting the need for further investigation into the biopsychological aspects of the appraisal process. Daters’ varied coping strategies revealed that uncertainty reduction was often forgone when it conflicted with communication goals, and the reliance on decision-making heuristics reflected the recognition that uncertainty could rarely be solved in full, especially in a context characterized by an emphasis on mate selection and abundance of choice. The analysis also revealed that the online dating process has the potential to increase the negative effects of uncertainty by delaying interpersonal communication and thus problematizing the most significant coping strategy available to daters

The Experience of the Self in Cyberspace: An Experiential Perspective on Social Networking Sites

The growth of social networking sites (SNSs) has led to significant alterations in the dynamics of our interpersonal relationships as well as how we present and experience ourselves (Alloway, Runac, Quershi, & Kemp, 2014). These transformations have important implications for researchers and practitioners in the field of counselling psychology. SNSs have become an integral aspect of many people’s lives and have grown faster and changed more than any other Internet activity over the last decade (Lup, Trub, & Rosenthal, 2015). The primary aim of this study was to explore the experience of the self on SNSs with a focus on understanding online interpersonal interactions and how participants experience their relationship to social media (SM) from an experiential perspective. Eight participants were recruited for this study between the ages of 20 – 41. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to explore participants’ experiences on these platforms. An experiential inductive thematic analysis was utilised to analyse participants’ accounts. The epistemological position adopted was phenomenology and the ontological position was critical realism. Analysis generated five themes and seven sub-themes representing patterned meaning throughout their accounts with a central theme ‘double- edged sword’. The themes were the following: ‘active versus passive use’ (sub-themes: ‘numbing versus stimulating - positive versus negative stimulation’, ‘recognition – social comparison’, ‘perception of oversharing’), ‘perception of control versus loss of control’ (sub-theme: ‘more control in the presentation of the self’, ‘addictive’), ‘virtual versus physical presence’ (sub-theme: ‘virtual versus sensory connectedness’), ‘bridge versus loss of connection’ (sub-theme: ‘surface-level platform’). Findings indicated that participants’ experience of and their relationship to SNSs can be described as a ‘double-edged sword’. Although they experienced positive aspects to SM, including positive ways of connecting to others, all their narratives of their lived experiences included negative consequences of engaging in the use of SM. The findings of the study offer some important insights into the role of SM within these participants’ lives, providing a potential guideline for other therapists and researchers to build upon. The results bring to light the vast complexity of individual and relational experiences that are taking place on SNSs and thus, highlight the potential value in exploring the experiences of clients’ who utilise these sites within a therapeutic setting (Gowen, Deschaine, Gruttadara, & Markey, 2012)

Dating_MissRepresentation.Com: Black Women\u27s Lived Love-Hate Relationship With Online Dating

The increased use of online dating sites has further encouraged corporations’ attempts to capitalize on these mate-seeking trends. Match.com, eHarmony, and OkCupid are primary competitors in a growing market of individuals seeking out potential romantic partners. They offer several mainstream dating options as well as niche-dating sites. Similar to society at large where dating still occurs offline, scholars have revealed that racial hierarchies exist within various online platforms. As such, the roles of gender and ethnicity in online dating environments merit study. Specifically, the experiences of Black women who use Internet dating sites, a virtually unexplored demographic, form the basis of this dissertation. This study consisted of 16 interviews and a demographic survey, which were used to examine Black women’s online dating experiences from their perspectives to determine whether or not online dating sites are productive, love-seeking spaces. Data analysis was conducted utilizing a Google Form survey to collect demographic data and NVivo 11 qualitative software to help generate themes that guided analysis. Themes that emerged included: negative and positive perceptions from men; physical and non-physical attributes participants possessed that men found attractive; whether or not men’s perceptions impacted interview participants’ success or failure in online dating, and whether or not participants viewed their online dating experiences to be in line with those of other Black women. Participants discussed how perceptions from men online influenced their racially-gendered online dating experience

Love on the line: The social dynamics involved with people meeting other people using New Zealand online dating sites

The intention of this thesis is to explore whether New Zealand trends in online dating parallel those identified by overseas studies, or whether patterns are emerging that are unique to New Zealand society. The Internet Windows Messenger instant messenger service (MSN) was used to interview 32 subjects about their experiences with online dating, covering areas such as motivation for using online dating; types of relationships sought; barriers to online dating; online rapport and offline chemistry; online infidelity; and managing 'difference'. Drawing on these responses, this thesis presents findings pertaining to a diverse group of New Zealanders' attitudes towards and uses of online dating. Some of the key findings show that online rapport does not guarantee offline chemistry; that there are gender differences in attitudes towards appearance, age, and receiving sexually explicit material online; and that sexual experimentation and infidelity are being facilitated through online dating. The issue of 'difference' as it relates to online dating has been largely neglected by overseas researchers, and for this reason was extensively included in this research. Key findings relating to 'difference' show that there is a clear split between those interviewees whose 'difference' impacted positively on their online dating experience (those with sexual 'difference' falling into this category), and those whose 'difference' impacted negatively (those with physical or mental 'difference'). In addition, those interviewees with a sexual 'difference' have been able to connect with other like-minded people through online dating, contributing to the 'normalization' of previously considered deviant behaviours. Based on the research presented in this thesis, it appears that New Zealand online dating activities are consistent with overseas trends, although there are indications that some behaviour may be more specific to New Zealand society, such as gender differences in relation to bisexuality, and covert same-sex encounters involving men who are either married or who state in their profiles that they are 'straight' or heterosexual

Romantic Miscalculations On Dating Applications: Definitions And Experiences Of Mobile Dating Micro-Rejection

Millions of emerging adults use mobile dating applications (MDAs) daily in their efforts to find a romantic partner. However, the processes these daters use to interpret and react to rejection have received little attention. Not every attempt to develop a relationship can be successful. As daters evaluate profiles on these apps and interact with potential partners, they may miscalculate their perceptions of compatibility hand encounter rejection. Within MDAs, rejection could be a passive or active declaration by an individual signifying they do not want to initiate or escalate a potential relationship. These various forms of rejection are conceptualized in this project as micro-rejections. This project uses qualitative methods to explore how heterosexual emerging adult mobile daters define and experience these speech acts in their attempts to develop relationships. After interviewing 41 daters, I identified differences in the way mobile daters classify and process rejection within their mobile dating interactions. These differences were influenced by a dater’s perceptions of affordances within dating applications and the emotional impact of micro-rejections within these spaces

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Trust Signals in the eHealth Sector: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach

The Internet gives patients the opportunity to be better informed, have ownership over their data, and, therefore, be empowered in the medical decision-making process. All of these new forms of patient empowerment through eHealth, however, require the patients’ trust in online service. Existing literature provides a solid foundation regarding the development of trust in social encounters. What is more, the understanding of trust related to more general online services, such as e-commerce is advanced, too. Regarding eHealth in particular, however, there are substantial gaps in the literature. What is more, all existing studies have one pitfall in common. None of them investigates trust as a reciprocal, evolving system that is based on recurring interactions between trustee and truster. Studies either focus on the individual view of the trustee or the truster but fail to analyse the potential dynamics of a trust signal and its evolution. This led me to research questions that aim to identify trust-evoking factors specific to eHealth, on the one hand, and develop an understanding of the evolution and sustainability of communication between trustee and truster. I applied a mixed-methods approach in order to answer my research questions. This allowed me to use qualitative methods to explore a variety of trust antecedents that are unique to eHealth, develop hypotheses, and then test the derived hypotheses through a quantitative study. One surprising insight of this study is that the risk perception of the overall service offer can determine the level of trust in a service even before entering the website. Risk perception proved to be a more crucial indicator of perceived trustworthiness than presence of trust signals on the website. This allows the conclusion that both researchers and policy makers should differentiate between high-risk and low-risk eHealth services instead of approaching all services under the unifying umbrella of eHealth. Another key finding is that users judge the trustworthiness of eHealth websites depending on their “fit”. For eHealth providers that means that in order to increase trust in their service they need to mimic the offline experience as much as possible