Local proximity

With location-aware mobile devices, we can now connect with people in our close vicinity for particular purposes. Dating apps are also referred to as ‘location-based real-time dating’ applications (Handel Shklovski, 2012 ) or ‘People-Nearby Applications’ (Van de Wiele Tom Tong, 2014 ) as they draw on the location of the user in order to provide matches in one’s geographic proximity. , 2015 ; Ellison et al., 2012 ), which could increase impression motivation.

Further, due to the issue of proximity, especially in the case of location-based dating apps, there may be less of a tendency to deceive potential matches, as there is a real chance that they will meet face to face and form a relationship (Ellison et al., 2012 ). Researchers describe this as identifiability or the ease with which an online identity can be connected to a known person (Blackwell et al., 2015 ; Woo, 2006 ). Due to this possibility, Blackwell et al. ( 2015 ) say users have ‘an incentive to present in an attractive, but plausible, light’ (p. 6). Læs resten →