In the search for love, lust, and happiness many people turn towards dating apps. These media platforms allow users to create a profile with a combination of photos and text. The profiles that they create ultimately function as ads to attract prospective mates. However, sometimes our thumbs start to hurt from swiping through hundreds of profiles in search of the one. Niche dating apps, such as Jswipe, offer up a potential solution to this problem. Jswipe is a location based app geared toward Jewish singles. The Jewish community only makes up 0.2% of the world’s population (Jswipe Love Study, 2019). Thus finding the one, if an individual is looking to date Jewish, can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Jswipe seeks to help users narrow down the search. Jswipe sends conflicting messages about authenticity as it allows users to reimagine their everyday selves but at the same time places them into strict categories.
Jswipe has a similar interface to that of Tinder. Users can download a free version which allows them to create a photo based profile along with a short bio. Unlike Tinder however, Jswipe asks users questions pertaining to their Jewish identity. Users must select what denomination they are and whether or not they keep kosher. This information appears on their profile and users can also set preferences if they are looking for a mate from a specific denomination or who keeps kosher. Like Tinder they can set filters to see other users within a specific distance, men, women or a specific age range. Jswipe also offers a first class paid upgrade for $31.99/month. The upgrade allows functions like seeing who has liked you, boosting your profile to get more views, photo optimization, location changing, extra super swipes, sending swipe notes (messages without matching first), access to read receipts of messages and the ability to undo swipes. Whether on the free or paid account Jswipe is swipe based. Profiles appear and users can swipe left to reject them or swipe right to match with them. If someone’s photo is interesting users can see more pics and read their bio by tapping on the profile. The platform makes money via the paid option as well as ads, and the collection of user data.
Jswipe, like many other dating apps and social media platforms offers the benefit of connectedness to users. Dijck in her chapter Facebook and the Imperative of Sharing defines connectedness as the element of sharing that allows users to connect with each other (Dijck, 2013). However, in the search for connectedness questions are raised about the meaning of authenticity as digital platforms allow users to re imagine their identity. Via photos and text users can select the story that they tell others about themselves in order to make themselves appealing to others. Social media platforms allow users to appear authentic but this persona that they create in the digital world is not necessarily the same as how they appear in the physical world. For example, one of the key benefits that Facebook provides users is that it offers them “a stage for crafting a self-image and for popularizing this image beyond intimate circles” (Dijck, 2013, p.51). Users can curate themselves to become whomever they wish in this online world and through this curation process they can expand their social circles. In the case of dating apps, like Jswipe, this means expanding their pool of potential mates.
However, issues surrounding authenticity arise with altering one’s self image online when using apps like Jswipe. People use these apps to find real and meaningful connections that will cross over into the physical world, yet they are often not accurately depicting the real world version of themselves on the platform. Instead, they interact using their online personas. This version of themselves might be authentic to how they feel but may be different from how they appear or act in the tangible world. Two online personas might be totally incompatible offline because their online persona’s are carefully crafted. Users of these dating platforms participate in a process of impression management to make themselves more appealing to other users (Ward, 2017). Dating apps allow users more room than face to face communication to change their self presentation (Ward, 2017). Yet Ward’s research shows that on dating apps, unlike other online platforms users strive to make their personas correlate somewhat with how they act in the tangible world: “All interviewees strove to make a positive impression, essentially aiming for a balance between an ideal and an authentic self-presentation” (Ward, 2017, p. 1652). The line between how far identity construction can go, however, is not clear cut. Most of us who have used dating apps have been on dates where the person looks nothing like their photos. It’s frowned upon but still happens with frequency.
The ethics of identity construction in many different online platforms is often questionable. In Howard Rheingold’s article Multi-user Dungeons and Alternate Identities, he notes that MUDs are digital platforms that not uncommonly lead to real world connections between users, including those of the romantic variety. These platforms provide the reimagining of users’ identity on an extreme level. Users create an animated avatar to interact with others on the platform. They do not have to maintain in pretences of staying true to themselves. However, because there is no accountability pertaining to one’s identity in the MUDs platforms sometimes these real world connections can go wrong. Rheingold notes the case of Sue. Sue was a character on one such MUD platform. She carried out her relationship with other players into the real world by writing letters and sending photos to them. Some of these men went so far as to fall in love with her. However, when she went silent a group of players went searching for her and found out that she was in fact a he and currently in prison (Rheingold, 2000). While dating apps such as Jswipe, create a stronger sense of authenticity because they are photobased and users often create their account using Facebook, they are similar to MUDs in the fact that they are a platform easily manipulated by impostors due to the ability that they provide users to reimagine their identity.
When creating online personas on dating apps users will often “misrepresent themselves to obtain a lot of potential matches” (Manta, 2019, p. 211). In her article, Tinder Lies, Manta found that “according to some studies, about eighty percent of individuals lie on at least some part of their online dating profiles” (Manta, 2019, p. 207). These lies can range from minor deceptions about weight or height to lying about marital status. As a platform Jswipe provides the same opportunities for deception as other applications such as Tinder.
Jswipe is interesting, however, because as a niche dating app, it reigns in the reimagined identity of users via its use of categorization. As previously mentioned upon creating an account users must specify their denomination and whether or not they keep kosher. This helps users sift through the profiles of potential mates in a way that makes them more likely to find a match with the same lifestyle, values or priorities as them. Obviously there is still room for deception. There is no monitor ensuring that people answer the questions honestly but one would assume that they have little incentive to be dishonest. Furthermore Jswipe includes certain features to boost users’ sense of connectedness. Each profile has a mutual interests section which will indicate any mutual interests that you share on Facebook. Users can also view how far others are from their location. These features add an aspect of credibility to user profiles.
Jswipe seeks to serve a niche market but the benefits and drawbacks of other social media platforms pertaining to the reimagining of identity are still prominent on the app. Meeting people online can be difficult to navigate as people are not always who they say they are. There is no system in place to discourage lying and ensure authenticity. The self curation process that users undergo on Jswipe allows them to both re imagine themselves but also places them in categories. This categorization is used to help users sift through profiles. Apps like these help create connectedness by broadening a users pool of potential mates. However, the online world is inherently different from the physical. Thus compatibility in the online realm does not necessarily carry to offline. Jswipe can provide an effective means of meeting new people, but at the end of the day for romance to last it needs to be built in the real world.
Works Cited
Dijck, J. van. (2013). Facebook and the Imperative of Sharing. The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media, (pp. 45–67). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
Jswipe Love Study. (2019). Retrieved February 20, 2020, from https://jswipelovestudy.com/
Manta, I. D. (2019). Tinder Lies. Wake Forest Law Review, 54(1), 207–249. Retrieved from: http://0-eds.a.ebscohost.com.mercury.concordia.ca/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=3a3d8mU%3d#db=bth&AN=136835607
Rheingold, H. (2000). Multi-user Dungeons and Alternate Identities. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (revised edition, pp. 149–180). Retrieved from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/5.html
Ward, J. (2017). What are you doing on Tinder? Impression management on a matchmaking mobile app. Information, Communication & Society, 20(11), 1644. Retrieved from: https://doi-org.lib-ezproxy.concordia.ca/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1252412
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