Researchers must necessarily bring themselves to their fieldwork, and much has been written about the advantages and disadvantages of outsider and insider identities. This piece considers how the researcher’s multiple identities–as someone who both uses and researches dating apps, and an outsider in Northern Ireland–interact and affect the research dynamic, writes Fiona Morrison-Fleming

Morrison-Fleming, Fiona

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LSE Research Online

Fiona Morrison-Fleming January 25th, 2021User, researcher, outsider: Navigating multiple identities whileconducting research on dating apps in Northern IrelandResearchers must necessarily bring themselves to their  eldwork, and much has beenwritten about the advantages and disadvantages of outsider and insider identities. Thispiece considers how the researcher’s multiple identities–as someone who both usesand researches dating apps, and an outsider in Northern Ireland–interact and affect theresearch dynamic, writes Fiona Morrison-Fleming._______________________________________________In Janelle Ward’s “A Dating App Autoethnography: Presenting Myself as a Researcher and User”, shewrites that “[m]eeting for an interview about Tinder is almost exactly the same as meeting for aTinder date” (2019:136). The blurred line of date vs. interview, love life vs. professional life issomething that I, too, experienced while conducting research on and using dating apps. Like Ward,my research interest was born from my own experiences and observations while using dating apps,leading me to write an MPhil dissertation titled “‘I guess that’s con ict resolution’: Dating apps as asite of intergroup contact in Belfast”. This piece contemplates the unique challenges presented bythis dual identity of researcher and dating app user, and the further complication of conductingresearch in Northern Ireland as an American.UserIt is one of my personal rituals upon moving to or visiting a new place to open Tinder and peruse theofferings. Beyond the vague desire for romantic connection, I  nd that dating apps offer a windowinto a city or country’s heart: Users’ pro les might provide insight into a place’s sense of humor,norms around dating or courtship, or culturally signi cant activities. When I moved to NorthernIreland for graduate school, I yet again found myself using Tinder as a lens through which tointerpret society and this ultimately culminated in a dissertation on identity presentation and cross-community relationships in the dating app era.https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2021/01/25/user-researcher-outsider-navigating-multiple-identities-while-conducting-research-on-dating-apps-in-northern-ireland/Date PDF generated: 10/12/2024, 14:33 Page 1 of 5My  rst foray onto dating apps in Northern Ireland was colored by my knowledge of the country’shistory. Euphemistically known as “the Troubles”, Northern Ireland’s decades-long civil con ict sawBritish security forces pitted against Catholic and Protestant paramilitaries, ending with the signingof the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 (Darby & MacGinty, 2002). While the treaty may have broughtan end to violence, relics of the con ict remain: Northern Ireland continues to suffer from the legacyof the Troubles in increased rates of suicide and addiction, a polarized political system, continuedparamilitary violence, and high rates of residential segregation (Tomlinson, 2012; North South Inter-Parliamentary Association, 2014; McDowell, 2018; Vardy, 2018; Holland & Rabrenovic, 2018; Smyth,2004; Shirlow, 2008).The peace wall separating the Falls and Shankill Roads in West Belfast as seen from ClonardMonastery, where the  rst secret talks with the IRA took place (Crutchley, 2014). Photograph by theauthor taken in October 2018 https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2021/01/25/user-researcher-outsider-navigating-multiple-identities-while-conducting-research-on-dating-apps-in-northern-ireland/Date PDF generated: 10/12/2024, 14:33 Page 2 of 5It was the reality of residential segregation in such a small city that initially sparked the idea for myresearch. While someone living in the Catholic stronghold of West Belfast would be surrounded byfellow Catholics and might not encounter Protestants in their daily lives, their Protestant neighborson the Shankill Road live only a few blocks away; an app like Tinder, which  lters on the basis of age,gender, and distance, would ensure exposure to the outgroup members. It would then become amatter of the user “telling” the community a liation of the pro les shown on their app, andaccordingly, how much of their identity each user chose to exhibit. In Belfast, it is not unheard of fora person to go through much of their life without ever having a meaningful relationship, be itplatonic or romantic, with someone of a different community background (Blevins, 2019). Itoccurred to me as I swiped past discernable and indiscernible Catholics and Protestants alike, thatdating apps were a site where previously impossible contact might be made.I quickly found myself trying to “tell” people’s community backgrounds through their names, bios orphotos: a Séan, for example, was clearly Catholic, while someone pictured wearing a red poppy pincould be easily identi ed as Protestant (the poppy indicating support for the British military). Therewere also those who presented their identity in more aggressive ways, whether through referencesto paramilitary organizations or one such warning stating “you shouldn’t date me if… you’re not aProtestant” accompanying a photo of a masked man holding a paintball gun. I was curious, too,about my own identity—was it clear that I was American, and therefore beyond the parameters ofcommunity a liation? Or did my Irish name out me as Catholic (which, incidentally, I am)? Soonenough, dating apps and the sectarian presentation of identity became a frequent topic ofconversation on my postgraduate course, with classmates regularly sending me screenshots ofparticularly interesting or extreme pro les. It felt simultaneously like an overtly sectarian space,where it was reasonable to pose with  ags and guns, and like an alternate world where a Catholicand a Protestant might fall in love (or lust) when they might not otherwise have had such anopportunity.ResearcherWhen I initially conceived of researching sectarian presentation and intergroup contact on datingapps, the idea seemed far too ethically fraught: Could I use screenshots of pro les taken by myselfor my classmates? Would I use my own pro le to recruit participants? I ultimately did neither ofthese, recruiting participants through student groups at the local university, as well as throughfriends when the former proved insu cient, and eschewing the use of pictures in favor of simplyspeaking to my interviewees about how they constructed their pro les. However, the complexitiesof my dual identity as researcher/user remained.In spite of the sterile manner in which I obtained interviews, the meetings themselves often had theslightly awkward edge of a Tinder date. Ward writes, “I’m starting to wonder how this is differentfrom any of the Tinder dates I’ve had in the past year. The difference is, of course, that this is aninterview, not a date. Or is it a date disguised as an interview? Or is it an interview disguised as ahttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2021/01/25/user-researcher-outsider-navigating-multiple-identities-while-conducting-research-on-dating-apps-in-northern-ireland/Date PDF generated: 10/12/2024, 14:33 Page 3 of 5date?” (2019:136). I was anxious about the possibility of seeing interviewees on an app later on. Iwas also hyper-aware of my self-presentation (Goffman, 1959) for these interviews, attempting todress in an approachable, professional, and in no way date-like manner while also avoiding anythingthat could be perceived as sectarian. I was heartily engaging in impression management even as Iinterviewed people about their own self-presentation online. When one would-be interviewee stoodme up, the letdown was akin to romantic disappointment–right down to the embarrassment ofleaving the cafe half an hour after telling the staff I was waiting for someone–though the loss ofvaluable research material made it somewhat worse.Unlike Ward, I used my experience on dating apps as an entry point for my interviews. Startinginterviews with my story of how I came to the research seemed to be an effective inroad, and hadthe result both of putting my interviewees at ease–clearly, there would be no judgement from me asa fellow dating app user–and being the most authentic way for me to engage. Similarly, I oftenillustrated questions with examples of my own opinions and experiences. When asking aninterviewee what their hard “no”s were for swiping, I shared my own rules (admittedly more relevantin the rural USA): no American  ag swimming trunks or tank tops; no guns; no  sh.OutsiderThe issue of my outsider, American identity is perhaps best represented by the experience of oneinterview. After the no-show of a Catholic male interviewee, I turned to my supervisor for help inprocuring a replacement and luckily he was able to enlist a family friend, Conor (pseudonym).During our interview, I asked Conor my standard question about his exposure to cross-communityrelationships growing up, to which he responded that “you just would’ve heard about it… not in anyway that is like bad, or good, you just would’ve heard about certain people’s parents, one beingCatholic and one being Protestant”. I discovered afterwards while talking to my supervisor thatConor’s stepfather was Protestant, a fact he had neglected to mention. In response to myastonishment, my supervisor posited that Conor might have been trying to maintain a picture oftraditional Irish Catholic-ness when interacting with me as an American. Of course I don’t know ifthis is truly the reason, but it certainly highlights one of the di culties of conducting research as anoutsider.ConclusionEvery researcher brings themselves into their work; the issue is how they acknowledge this, and inwhat way it informs the  nal product (England, 1994; Merriam et al, 2001; Bourke, 2014). It isimpossible to know how my  ndings might have changed if my identity was different: Had I notbeen American, an outsider in Belfast, Catholic but not Northern Irish Catholic, I might have beenperceived differently and received different answers. Had I not been a dating app user, I might havehad more professional credibility–or I might have failed to gain the same trust and rapport from myinterviewees. The different impacts of the various layers of my identity on my  eldworkhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2021/01/25/user-researcher-outsider-navigating-multiple-identities-while-conducting-research-on-dating-apps-in-northern-ireland/Date PDF generated: 10/12/2024, 14:33 Page 4 of 5demonstrate just how crucial it is to be aware of one’s positionality and experiences whenconducting research. For citation: Morrison-Fleming, F. (2020). User, researcher, outsider: Navigating multiple identitieswhile conducting research on dating apps in Northern Ireland. Field Research Methods Lab atLSE (25 January) Blog entry. URL: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ eldresearch/2021/01/25/user-researcher-outsider-navigating-multiple-identities-while-conducting-research-on-dating-apps-in-northern-ireland/About the authorPosted In: Digital research | Researcher's Positionality© LSE 2024Fiona Morrison-Fleming received her MPhil with distinction in Con ict Resolution from TrinityCollege Dublin at Belfast, and was recipient of the James Haire Memorial Prize for outstandingcoursework. She is currently applying for PhD programs in hopes of continuing her researchinvestigating dating apps as sites of intergroup contact.Fiona Morrison-Fleminghttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2021/01/25/user-researcher-outsider-navigating-multiple-identities-while-conducting-research-on-dating-apps-in-northern-ireland/Date PDF generated: 10/12/2024, 14:33 Page 5 of 5

User, researcher, outsider: navigating multiple identities while conducting research on dating apps in Northern Ireland

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User, researcher, outsider: navigating multiple identities while conducting research on dating apps in Northern Ireland

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