Sharing of Content Through Bumble

            In Van Dijck’s, Culture of Connectivity she teaches us many things about the similarities between platforms of social media and how they all follow similar traits in terms of technology, users/ usage, content, governance, ownership and business models (2013). When analyzing content, she makes a very powerful point about how such platforms prefer standardization. When using the Bumble dating app, it is very evident it follows this guideline of standardization. Regardless of who is using the app everyone experiences the same uniform deliverance in the layout of their content.  The regulation in Bumble sacrifices the ability for personalization in order to promote good content flow. Bumble limits its users to a maximum of six photos, a bio with a maximum of 300 characters and to a maximum distance of 161 kilometers of people you can communicate with. Restrictions like these are put into place in order to create an organized space that allows the app to achieve its main goal or purpose. In Bumble’s case it is creating what the owners believe to be the best space for communication to help establish a relationship with someone. This standardization is the most effective way to share cultural content to stimulate connectedness.

        

            Comparing a mobile dating app such as Bumble and an older online dating site shows how the sharing of content has changed overtime and how that change reflects society’s current understandings of dating in the modern world. With a site such as eHarmony the way content is distributed is much different than Bumble and it is actually much more controlled as well. People using the sites did not get to choose as freely who they wish to interact with and instead after filling out a very extensive questionnaire about their personal traits the sites uses algorithms to pick someone who answered similarly and shares similar similarities. Then the users can decide to talk to them or not. Bumble, although it is controlled, still tries to incorporate a user-based aspect that became popular alongside the rise of social media around 2000 to 2006 (Van Dijck, 2013). The user can choose a variety of photos to represent themselves and can openly discuss and share cultural content through their bio which is unstructured to give the users more freedom. An additional factor that Bumble shares with other social media platforms is the availability and flexibility that is associated with mobile devices (Magrina, 2015). Location no longer holds back these platforms, because they are accessible through a cell phone the user can be on Bumble at any time. Location no longer prevents the user from participating with the app as it did with online dating where the users needed to use a stationary computer to communicate with someone.

            The evolution on what content is produced and how it is shared through dating apps reflects society’s current understanding of modern dating. When digital media was first taking dominance and online dating sites started becoming popular they were centralized on the idea of finding the user’s soulmate. They would focus on the user’s personality, goals and beliefs and match them with someone who had similar interests. Now with dating apps such as Bumble users have the opportunity to match with anyone within a certain geographical radius from them and they determine who they wish to interact with based on images. This shows how our society has become much more superficial with the way we choose our partners. Despite Bumble’s regulations and organization of content that is used in order to promote a more feminist app it is impossible to completely remove the users who are only looking for a casual hookup (Raviv, 2014). Because of the way these dating apps are set up they are the perfect place for men who are not looking for a relationship to thrive because of the simplicity of matching with someone. Although Bumble uses algorithms in attempts to get rid of the jerks the app cannot change societal views and because we are currently in a "hook-up" society there is only so much it can do.

Works Cited

Berlin, Raviv. "The Professional Ethics of Online Dating: Need for Guidance." Journal of American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 53.9 (2014): 935-37. Scholars Portal. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Magrina, Elena. "Online Dating vs. Mobile Dating – New Opportunities and Challenges." Inline Policy. 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 9 Nov. 2015. <http://inlinepolicy.com/2015/online-dating-vs-mobile-dating-new-opportunities-and-challenges/>.

Van Dijck, Jose (2013). The culture of Connectivity. Oxford university press, P 32-34.