陳維平

Wei-Ping Chen

交友軟體、自我呈現、能見度、配對邏輯、演算法信念、親密關係

dating apps, self-presentation, visibility, matching logic, algorithmic beliefs, intimate relationships

本研究探究交友軟體如何中介親密關係，並在平臺化的脈絡下與數據、性別、消費文化相互形塑。透過演練法與深度訪談，分析17名臺灣交友軟體使用者的經驗，揭示其於科技互動中的實踐策略。研究發現，使用者發展出功能型、情感型與關係型的演算法信念，藉此協調平臺邏輯與親密期待；同時，交友軟體將使用者特質轉化為數位親密資本，包含視覺魅力、社會定位、親密價值、自我成長、平臺互動，構築分層化的慾望階序；在此過程中，使用者透過形式、互動與情感真實性的協商，展現回應平臺邏輯的反身性實踐。

本研究提出數位親密中介框架，闡明親密關係在演算法技術、性別文化與消費邏輯交織下動態協商的過程，並進一步建構演算式親密主體性的概念，揭示個體如何將技術操作、資本管理與真實性表演內化為親密實踐的核心能力。平臺透過賦予型與績效型能見度的篩選機制，將性別化資本與慾望階序納入演算法系統，形成數位親密的多重糾葛。此概念框架不僅深化對交友軟體作為社會技術的理解，更為探析科技中介下親密關係的權力動態提供批判視角。

Dating apps constitute a paradigmatic shift in intimate relationship formation by introducing algorithmic mediation that restructures how romantic connections emerge. These platforms convert personal attributes into computational data, creating new forms of capital and hierarchical visibility systems that reshape attraction standards and relationship possibilities. Users must navigate sophisticated optimization strategies while seeking authentic intimate expression, revealing how technology reconstructs romantic connection.

This research investigates how dating apps mediate intimate relationships through the intersection of algorithmic logic, gender norms, and consumer culture. The analysis addresses three issues: how users develop understanding and response strategies toward algorithmic mechanisms; how personal characteristics transform into assessable capital forms; and how datafication processes reshape gendered desirability hierarchies while users seek autonomy within platform constraints.

The research combines systematic walkthrough analysis across three platforms (Pairs, Paktor, and Tinder) from interviews of 17 Taiwanese dating app users aged 20-40. Data collection involved five months of platform observation examining distinct matching logics and demographic targeting. Semi-structured interviews focused on heterosexual women’s experiences, given their structural matching advantages alongside complex negotiations with platform logic and gender expectations. The analysis employs grounded theory procedures, developing themes around algorithmic perception, self-presentation strategies, and intimate expectations.

Drawing upon Illouz & Finkelman’s (2009) emotional rationality modality, the analysis examines how dating apps intensify intersections between emotional and economic logic through algorithmic recommendations, premium services, and interaction metrics. Extending Sharabi’s (2021) algorithmic beliefs concept, the study evaluates user interpretations of platform algorithms. The framework also engages theories of sexual fields (Green, 2013) and gendered capital (Hakim, 2010; Regan, 2021) to analyze how platform design reorders capital effectiveness in relationship formation.

The research reveals that users develop multi-dimensional algorithmic beliefs, enabling platform navigation while negotiating technological logic and intimate expectations. Functional beliefs encompass speculation about algorithmic operations based on limited transparency and personal experiences. Emotional beliefs involve expectations about intimate experience quality under algorithmic mediation, particularly emotional adjustment when technological promises fail to materialize. Relational beliefs focus on understanding platform interaction norms and optimizing visibility within imagined algorithmic preferences. These systems operate as independent frameworks and interdependent mechanisms, enabling users to develop folk theories within technological constraints.

This paper presents how dating apps transform personal characteristics into digital intimate capital comprising five interconnected dimensions. Visual charm involves strategic appearance presentation, balancing optimization with authenticity claims. Social positioning demonstrates cultural and economic status through cross-platform activities, signaling desirable lifestyle access. Intimate values encompass relationship ideals expressed through strategic content and conversation approaches. Self-growth represents development narratives, appealing to contemporary relationship expectations. Platform interactions require technical proficiency, optimizing engagement timing and premium feature deployment. These capitals operate hierarchically: visual charm functions as entry threshold, social positioning establishes credibility, intimate values and self-growth indicate long-term potential, and platform skills multiply other capital effectiveness.

The analysis reveals two distinct visibility mechanisms that create desirability hierarchies within platform ecosystems. Granted visibility enables exposure enhancement through premium features or unpaid platform labor, operating through formal authenticity requirements that include profile completeness and verification. Merit-based visibility demands complex capital integration, demonstrating interaction quality and emotional authenticity, requiring sophisticated combinations, and creating perceivable advantages in conversation quality and relationship potential. These mechanisms generate structural contradictions: women can achieve basic visibility through visual charm capital, but encounter cultural constraints when attempting to demonstrate merit-based visibility, while men must simultaneously invest in both visibility mechanisms since visual charm capital alone rarely generates sufficient platform attention.

Users negotiate authenticity across three levels, reflecting mediation between technical requirements and emotional needs. Formal authenticity involves accurate representation that avoids deceptive practices. Interactive authenticity emphasizes consistent communication that transcends scripted responses. Emotional authenticity focuses on value expression, exceeding standardized categories and enabling genuine characteristics within technological constraints. This produces strategic authenticity, wherein users redefine genuine relationship formation within platform constraints, while creating new emotional labor categories that blur boundaries between authentic expression and calculated presentation.
This paper proposes the Digital Intimacy Mediation Framework as a comprehensive theoretical contribution, illuminating how relationships undergo dynamic negotiation at the intersection of algorithmic technology, gender culture, and consumer logic. The framework identifies three core processes: algorithmic mediation intersects with gender norms, constituting structural relationship conditions; visibility politics collaborates with gendered capital, generating power dynamics; and reflexive practices engage with intimate subjectivity, explaining agency mechanisms.

Building upon Elliott’s (2022) algorithmic intimacy analysis, this research develops algorithmic intimate subjectivity as a key theoretical concept that captures how relationship formation increasingly requires internalizing technical operations, capital management, and authenticity performance as critical practice competencies. Users must simultaneously master algorithmic speculation, capital accumulation, and authenticity performance, while continuously generating filtering criteria and visibility strategies. Dating apps function as regulatory sites where intimate norms undergo reconstruction, providing apparent autonomy while incorporating practices into sophisticated disciplinary mechanisms that reshape romantic possibilities.

The findings demonstrate that dating apps generate complex tensions where relationships simultaneously negotiate technical efficiency with emotional authenticity, choice expansion with structural limitations, and empowerment with exhibition burdens. Consumer culture becomes internalized as essential competency rather than external influence, transforming platformized relationships into technical practices requiring continuous optimization.

This paper offers analytical frameworks for examining digitally-mediated intimacy across expanding technological domains. The Digital Intimacy Mediation Framework and algorithmic intimate subjectivity provide theoretical tools for analyzing how technology reshapes human experiences of connection, desire, and relationship formation in contemporary digital environments. It advances understanding of platform-mediated social relationships, while offering critical perspectives on technology’s role in structuring intimate human experiences.