Date of Award

Spring 5-4-2018

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

English, Linguistics, and Communication

Department Chair or Program Director

Richards, Gary

First Advisor

Rao, Anand

Second Advisor

Ohl, Jessy

Major or Concentration

Communication and Digital Studies

Abstract

This paper explores the procedural rhetoric of the popular dating app Tinder. I argue that through its procedural rhetoric, Tinder functions to gamify dating, and provides a persuasive game worthy of rhetorical analysis. In this paper, I focus on the first two phases of a procedural rhetoric approach for studying online dating outlined by Shepherd (2016) — 1) gathering information on app functionality and 2) engaging with the user experience. Not only do the procedures and message blurbs gamify Tinder, but they also call users to action, combat negative stereotypes surrounding dating and Tinder, and seek to create a commonality between users. The gamification of dating by Tinder offers many implications and shows the need for further rhetorical study.

Download

Included in

Communication Commons

Share

COinS