Bumble Algorithm Changing Our Gender Scripts

Van Djick views technological platforms as devices that encode social activities and translate them into programmed instructions, which work to direct user activities and behaviour.  In other words, platforms of technology work to guide our social activities.  The Bumble app is a technological platform programmed to drive our dating behaviour by coding how we should interact with our matches.  The app does this by requiring the female to make the first move within 24 hours of matching up with another individual, or else she will no longer have access to communicating with this potential interest again. 

In changing the algorithm of male-female dating behaviour, Bumble challenges what psychologist Vicki Helgeson terms, our “gender scripts”.  Gender scripts are our cognitive representations and expectations about a sequence of events or behaviours that are gender based.  Helgeson claims that our gender scripts about dating behaviour tell us that, “The male initiates the date, decides what to do on the date, arranges transportation, pays for the date, and initiates sexual contact. By contrast, the female accepts or rejects the invitation, the plans for the date, and sexual advances”.  Our gender scripts convince us that it is not normative for females to take initiative when it comes to dating behaviour, but the Bumble app challenges these norms and stereotypical gender behaviours by providing a technological platform that allows only women to make the first move.  Though it’s traditional for males to take initiative in romantic relationships, Helgeson also notes that, “Today, it is more acceptable for women to invite men on a date, and there are more forums set up for female initiation” (Helgeson, 2012).  One of these forums is the Bumble app.

But how do women actually feel when it comes down to making the first move?  When I first downloaded the Bumble app I wasn’t quite certain how I would feel about messaging my match first and when it came down to it, I chickened out.  When I met with the rest of my female group members who also tried out the app, each of them expressed feelings of discomfort when having to approach the male first.  We all agreed that we have been socialized to believe these gender scripts, which tell us that men should be the ones initiating dating relationships, to be the norm.  In an article titled, Bumble Dating App is All Buzz, a commentator reflects on the app and argues that, “Bumble plays into societal gender norms and roles instead of changing them…it promotes the idea that women cannot be confident on their own, so they need a special platform to encourage them to ask men out” (Breck, 2015).  I found this interesting as the algorithm of the app, which does not allow the male to contact the female first and only gives her 24 hours to contact her match before he disappears, is supposed to dispel societal gender norms however, it is actually encouraging women to hide behind a technological platform.  This leaves me with the question, is Bumble truly steering user behaviour in a direction that creates positive social change and eliminates gender scripts?

Work Cited

Breck, A. (2015, October 19). Bumble dating app is all buzz. The Columbia Chronicle. Retrieved from http://www.columbiachronicle.com/opinion/article_ecd78728-7458-11e5-b6a1-bf5227aaf6b5.html

Helgeson, V. (2012). The Psychology of Gender (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education.