Bye bye romance, welcome reputation: An analysis of the digital enclosure of dating

Abstract

In contemporary ‘platformised’ societies, digital businesses play a key role in producing and reproducing romantic cultures. In this article, we explore how the digital industry of dating has translated existing romantic cultures into datafied algorithmic infrastructures. We do so by looking at the interplay between the interconnected dimensions of a) existing mainstream cultures of love and sex, b) their datafication and codification into dating apps, and c) how the latter produce a new understanding of dating that is functional to create digital enclosures. Drawing on existing scholarly research as well as original qualitative data, we argue that dating apps reproduce dating as a de-romanticised social practice which is part of a digital lifestyle organised around a reputational logic.