Critical Analysis: Tinder Study on Emerging Adults' Motivations

This report provides a critical analysis of the study "Love me Tinder: Untangling emerging adults’ motivations for using the dating application Tinder." The study, conducted by Sindy R. Sumter, Laura Vandenbosch, and Loes Ligtenberg, investigates the motivations behind Tinder usage among 18-30 year old emerging adults, using online surveys and relevant literature on emerging adulthood and gender socialization. The report highlights the study's methodology, including the use of the Qualtrics online survey tool to measure motivations, and the findings, such as the positive correlation between age and motivations like casual sex, ease of communication, and love. The analysis acknowledges the study's limitations, including the need for further validation of the Tinder motivation scale. The report concludes with the implications of the research and suggestions for future studies, emphasizing the importance of understanding user motivations to fully grasp the impact of dating applications. The study's findings suggest that motivations behind dating app usage vary and are influenced by factors such as age and gender.

Critical Evaluation of the
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Love me Tinder: Untangling emerging adults’ motivations for using the
dating application Tinder
The article named as “Love me Tinder: Untangling emerging adults’ motivations for using
the dating application Tinder” was written by Sindy R. Sumter, Laura Vandenbosch and Loes
Ligtenberg in year 2016. The study aims to ascertain the primary motivations of emerging adults
to utilize Tinder. The study was performed among Dutch 18 – 30-year-old emerging adults who
finished an online survey. In the article, the literature on emerging adulthood and motivations for
utilising new media is used as an evidence. Apart from this, the gender socialization literature
was also used in the study which has emphasized that women and men are socialized towards
distinct social, physical and psychosocial needs. There is a counter evidence provided in the
article which was acknowledged by the author which was regarding age. The developmental
literature is use that social, physical and psychosocial needs change when emerging adults grow
older. The study supports the reasoning as an impact of age on motivations to utilise online
media. The evidence which authors used in the study were used adequately and appropriately
and the article analysed and interpreted the data correctly. For gaining insights into gratifications
and uses of tender, research design an online survey by using qualtrics online survey tool. In line
to the prior explorative studies which aimed to determine motivations for usage of new media,
the measure of motivation of Tinder was developed in three steps. The zero-order correlations
demonstrate significant positive relationship of age with the motivations casual sex, ease of
communication and love. When emerging adults become older, then the significance of these
motivation tends to increase. It has been suggested by the media coverage that the application
'Tinder' is utilised mainly for meaningless sexual hook-ups. Yet, no empirical study health
investigated emerging adults reason to utilize Tinder. The implications of the research study
logically follow on from the findings and the author was completely aware of the limitations of
study. However, it will be crucial in the study to keep in mind that to completely understand the
impact of dating apps, motivations of users required to be taken into consideration as they might
not always align with intentions of application developers. The limitations of the study include
the newly developed Tinder motivation scale requires to be cross validated in independent
sample. Apart from this, it is recommended that the reliability and validity must be assessed
more precisely, through investigating divergent and convergent validity of 6 motivations as well
as test-retest reliability of scale.
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