This article has been subjected to double blind peer review

This article has been published in: Ocula 29, Flux 2024

author: Marika Nesi Lammardo (Université Paris Cité (PHILéPOL), FR; Université de Liège (Traverses), BE)

Don’t swipe me left please! Protocols and Seduction in the Age of Online Dating

language: italian

abstract: This paper aims to explore the veridictory strategies dating apps employ to enhance user engagement. Central to online dating, the Swipe action — Right Swipe for interest and Left Swipe for disregard — embodies a widely adopted practice. Nevertheless,
an increasing number of users express distrust and frustration with these platforms. A field survey in-volving 380 digital interactions allowed to observe the practice in its natural setting, and then to identify their patterns and values. The main findings expose a recursive grammar of seduction (Craving Effect), stemming from a shift in the actantial role of the al-gorithm, which functions as the Addresser. With re-gard to this matter, a sociosemiotics analysis allows for envisioning a schema of the applied strategies: Covalent Discourse, Mimesis, Métis, and Alchemical Discourse.

citation information: Marika Nesi Lammardo, Don’t swipe me left please! Protocolli e seduzione ai tempi del dating online, "Ocula", vol.25, n.29, pp.113-144, November 2024. DOI: 10.57576/ocula2024-22

Ocula.it publishes articles and essays in semiotic research, with a particular eye on communication and culture; it is open to dialogue with other research fields and welcomes contributions from all the areas of the social and human sciences. See the Editorial Board and the Editorial Committee.