LAURA SELBY

 Laura Selby730093438Dr. MarwickCOMM 39023 February 2018TINDER 2.0: GIF Me a ChanceTinder, the app where lonely, sleep deprived college kids aimlessly swipe through matches while sipping Starbucks and procrastinating papers. While Urban Dictionary most likely provides more accurate descriptions of the app, this definition allows a tamer look into one of the most popular apps of the Millennial generation. Founded in 2012, Tinder’s aim was to break the stigma around online dating by appealing to a young, tech savvy generation (Tinder). Along the way of breaking societal norms, Tinder also began to create some of its own. EXPERIMENTThis paper is a twist to the “Coming On Strong” Tinder Breaching Experiment. Instead of coming on too strong to break the “casual hookup” Tinder-Norm, I decided to break the “texting structure norm” by responding in only GIFs to my matches. My rules for the GIF experiment were that no matter what, I would only respond in GIF format. METHODFor this experiment, I began by picking 4 photos from a friend’s Instagram to create the Photo Reel for the profile. To make sure she did no receive backlash for anything possibly gone awry in the project, I decided to ask my friend that lives no where close to Chapel Hill. My bio for “Lilly James” was updated in a way that would most likely appeal to a larger pool of people on the app that I had already come across (and swiped). I did this in hopes of getting a higher rate of interest in the form of likes, messages, or interactions. My bio read “-- 4/20 friendly -- Send me your best pick-up line or a weird fun fact about yourself.” I found that more people read my bio and swiped right or interacted with my profile significantly when I added the “4/20 friendly” after swiping the first 50 profiles. I added “4/20 friendly” per a friend’s suggestion to try it out since “I might as well at this point.” Surprisingly, and thankfully, most of the conversations I had did not revolve, or even hint, at anything weed related. If the conversations began heading in a “4/20” direction I would unmatch to permanently end the conversation. I pooled from a group of 65 guys that swiped right on my profile (I swiped 100 originally). As the guys matched and responded, they usually beat me to the punch and would start a conversation before I could even open the app to see who it was. I swiped on the first 100 random guys who appeared within a 50 mile radius of my profile from ages ranging 19 to 24. I decided to only send GIFs in response to anything a guy asked or sent in our shared chat. I would often communicate with GIFS from popular TV shows such as Full House, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and FRIENDS. For example, if a guy asked me how I was feeling, I would often reply with a GIF of Larry from Curb Your Enthusiasm saying “I’m Pretty Pretty Good.” If they said Lilly was pretty, or something along those lines, I would send a picture of the skunk from Bambi blushing. I made sure to pick recognizable GIFs in order to try and increase the likelihood of someone responding. On a whole, my idea was to keep sending GIFs to the person, until the bitter end. An end that usually came quickly. RESULTSThis experiment was successful in the sense that people either played along with it for a little bit, such as *Trevor, before unmatching me or not responding, or they would respond for a long duration, like *Loyd. The latter was rare. There was a bit more interaction with this “playful” response type than I first imagined. This is because Tinder is a dating app for young people and playful often translates to flirty. With the GIF search feature already enabled and easy to access from within the app, Tinder’s structure made this experiment easy to implement. There are two differing case studies I analyze below to highlight a few of the interesting dynamics I noticed. The first case study is with Trevor.Case Study #1- Don’t GIF Up On Me:Trevor presented himself in his bio with: “I’m a country boy and the last time I checked we treat women with respect. .” It was complete with photos involving camo, his mother, and a nice bathroom selfie featuring a shower curtain resembling an eerily similar pattern to Justin Timberlake’s Super Bowl Halftime Show shirt (think large bucks framed by a majestic background) (The Cut, 2018). This was the convo that ensued:Trevor: “Hey gorgeous how’s your day ” My Response: GIF of Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm saying “pretty pretty… pretty good.”Trevor: “haha why is that”My Response: GIF of guy spinning around and pointing at the screen (indicating “because of you”)Trevor: “is that right”My Response: GIF of a woman winking and doing a two finger salute off her forehead in a joking way (Note: I could tell from the response time changes from faster responses to now slower ones that I was losing his interest, and patience)Trevor: “Are you not going to say anything?”My Response: GIF of young Winona Ryder shrugging and saying “Maybe”Trevor: “Well if not it was fun talking to you I guess”My Response: GIF of Dame Helen Mirren saying “This is supposed to be fun!”Trevor: Unmatches meA minute shy of the 30 minute mark, our potential flame for romance was extinguished. I guess we have a GIFference of opinion. It quickly became obvious that he was not interested in my GIFFY ways. When I did not respond with text upon prompting, I was given one last shot and then unmatched. At least he remained respectful the entire time, true to his bio’s word. This is a strong example of how numerous guys unmatched me, or simply stopped responding, because I was sending GIFS. I noticed that Duke guys who proudly touted themselves as “intellectuals” or “artsy” in their bios and mannerisms were quicker to unmatch me than most. Usually, they would respond in a pretentious manner and were quick to move on. This reflects the negative reactions my matches felt towards my profile because I was not responding in the social norm of texting on Tinder. Case Study #2- I GIF You 5 Stars:I was pleasantly surprised, and relieved, to see at least one of the guys, Loyd, take an interest in my GIF methods. This was the convo that ensued:My Initial Message: GIF of a cartoon Corgi wavingLoyd: GIF of young Obi Wan running his hand through his hair with the subtitle “Hey there pretty lady. You come here often?”My Response: GIF of Joey from FRIENDS shrugging Loyd: GIF of Joey from FRIENDS saying “How you doin’?”My Response: GIF of Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm subtitled “pretty pretty good”Loyd: GIF of Sutton Foster sincerely saying “I am so happy to hear this” My Response: GIF of a guy on a swing set looking at a list of things to say as a woman in the GIF asks him “What are you thinking about?”Loyd: GIF that shows the side of a cartoon head with “You” pulsing through and around several timesMy Response: GIF of Flower (the skunk) from Bambi blushing bashfullyLoyd: GIF of black and white movie where a rugged guy asks “How about yourself?My Response: GIF of Pooh tapping his head in thought with “Think” flashing belowLoyd: GIF of Spongebob in a desk waiting eagerlyMy Response: GIF of a guy turning his hat from the side to the front and pointing at the screen with a smirkLoyd: GIF of guy catching a heart-eye emoji () pillow and smilingMy Response: GIF of Snoop Dogg nodding and another GIF of DJ Khaled pointing off to the left side (interpreted as pointing at him)Loyd: GIF of girl saying “Oh my god. You’re so beautiful”My Response: GIF of guy blushing and putting hands to his faceLoyd: GIF of guy smelling a woman’s hair and her asking “What are you doing” (Note: This was a weird GIF to see and I did not know how to initially interpret it, but thought he picked it because of the phrase instead of the GIF action.) My Response: GIF of writing a paperLoyd: GIF of Dr. Phil looking shookMy FINAL Response: GIF of Baby Boss falling asleep reading paperwork and then waking up to look at itSince the last message from my account was sent rather late, I figured his lack of response was either from him going to sleep or no longer being interested enough in spending energy finding accurate GIFs to hold an actual conversation. I will give props to Loyd for responding quickly to me for such an extended period of time, instead of unmatching me like most of the others. DiscussionWhen I first sat down to brainstorm this experiment, I decided to think of all the Tinder-Norms, which are mostly implicit, that I could break (Marwik, Norms, 12). Tinder sells itself as a casual, fun, texting app for strangers to get to know each other in a potentially romantic way. Even the app’s interface pushes the social norm of quick, snap second decisions with its minimalist design and short, “140 character” type profiles. In an age where instant gratification and unlimited access to anything of desire is the new normal, it makes sense that a dating app would reflect these now normative values. While Tinder itself breaks online dating norms such as “talking/meeting a stranger from online is bad” or “online dating is taboo”, it has still developed its own social norms ripe for the breaking. My way of breaking the app’s text heavy norm was by responding only in GIFS. In an app where sending pictures is not even an option, GIFs (and emojis) were my only viable option for “norm violations” on the structural text front (Marwick, 7). My “special motive” was to identify ways in which the Tinder community promotes its own rules that members enforce and conform to (Garfinkel, 37). The responses from my Tinder matches illustrate how rule breakers are punished for straying too far from the social norm (in this case, not responding in a text format), by either unmatching, reporting, or getting angry and saying something rude as a way of “social shaming” (Markwick, 14). I bet if I had stated my motive in my bio explicitly “I only respond in GIFs” my number of interactions would have dropped substantially. The most positive response I received usually came from profiles where the guys seemed like outsiders, or nonconformists themselves. Loyd’s linked Instagram showed numerous photos of himself flicking off the camera in edgy clothing. It is also interesting to note how stereotypical member profiles appeared. This may be due to Tinder’s minimalist design forces users to boil down their personality to a set number of attention grabbing points. Stereotypes such as the “Philosophical Duke Student”, “Frat Bro”, “Good Ol’ Country Boy”, and “~Artsy~ Hipster” ran rampant on the app. Surprisingly, the stereotypes were often a strong indicator of how a match would respond to my GIFs. If they appeared to have an offbeat sense of humor, or were more artsy, the match was more likely to engage. If the match wanted to appear more “high-brow” they would quickly leave the conversation with a snobbish comment. Perhaps by portraying themselves as a particular stereotype, the matches were more likely to take on these stereotypically associated traits. While I originally planned to conduct a few different Tinder-Norm breaking experiments, one was enough to prove the different responses people give when they are met with the unfamiliar. Their responses were generally negative, as they would often GIF up on me when it became apparent I would not conform to their implicit Tinder nroms. Works Cited:Garfinkel, Harold. “Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities.” Social Problems, vol. 11, no. 3, 1964, pp. 225–250., doi:10.1525/sp.1964.11.3.03a00020.IAC. “Swipe. Match. Chat.” Tinder, IAC, 12 Sept. 2012, .Marwick, Alice. "Norms." February 2018. PowerPoint Presentation.Mazur/WireImage, Kevin. “Stella McCartney Designed Justin Timberlake's Super Bowl Suit.” The Cut, New York Media LLC, 4 Feb. 2018, 2018/02/stella-mccartney-made-justin-timberlakes-super-bowl-suit.html ................
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