Blog Post 10

This week, I mainly focus on the literature review part. I used the Columbia University Online Library and google scholar to do the research related to my topic. My last critique assignment was about how the disadvantaged minorities use the internet to expand their social networks, and I want to narrow it down to the gay males in the US to see how could the online communication help them to communicate with the gay people.

I chose one of the most popular gay male dating app called Grindr and found some researches related to that. This is a location-aware app. Location-aware app allows users to identify other gay males(GM) in their geographical vicinity discreetly. Some GM feel meeting others online instead of offline, where they face the risk of being mugged or assaulted (Hennelly, 2010).

Users can display a photograph, a brief headline, physical traits, their filtering preferences, geographical proximity. According to the research, the reasons why some GM leave is that they think that the app focus on the casual sex and it’s hard to establish more meaningful relationships. And people who seek to build the friendship or Romantic relationship feel excluded from the application.

It’s important to pay attention to the identity of GM online, including self-esteem, continuity, self-efficacy, distinctiveness, coherence and etc. Many interviewees reported that they use the app to reconstruct their social identity. There are some phenomenons:

One phenomenon is that in order to “Prime” other users, they just use digital enhancement to modify their pictures even though they don’t always correspond to the reality.And some GM display a photograph of torso instead of face because they don’t want to be recognized as looking for casual sex online associated with their lives offline to protect their self-esteem.  Some interviewees said that they were not as much as confident as online in the subsequent face-to-face communications. And many times, they find it’s hard to adhere to the identities that be constructed online. Also some users reported that it is easy to get addicted to the app and waste of their time.

I’m still working on the research in the next week to find out more about the behaviors and thoughts for the GM online and how they find it different offline.