Tinder and Swipe Fatigue: Examining Dating App Transformations

Stefanie Duguay, Director of the Digital Intimacy, Gender and Sexuality Lab at Concordia, delivers the second AHCP 2627 research seminar.
About this Event

How has Tinder transformed the conditions of digital intimacy over time? This talk focuses on Tinder, one of the most popular dating apps worldwide, to identify key shifts throughout the app’s adoption and maturation. These shifts carry implications for relationship-seeking, authentic self-presentation, data-driven surveillance, and the commodification of users, raising questions about how people and technologies could otherwise facilitate intimacy.

Stefanie Duguay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada. She is Director of the Digital Intimacy, Gender and Sexuality (DIGS) Lab where her research focuses on the intersection of digital technologies and media with representations and practices pertaining to intimate life, relationships, gender, and sexuality. This has involved studies of dating apps, platform governance, and the role of platforms and mobile media in queer social landscapes. She is author of Tinder: Digital Intimacy in the Dating App Era (Polity, 2026) and Personal but Not Private: Queer Women, Sexuality, and Identity Modulation on Digital Platforms (OUP, 2022).