ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the difference between digital and IRL intimacy. Whilst users indicated there was no difference, their practices indicated otherwise. They found dating apps lacked a certain animated quality that was required to develop an intimacy. It was almost as though users were flatted, 2D, and the key things required to develop an intimacy – for example, the tone of someone’s voice, the sound of their laugh and their gestures – were lost. This created a sense that the people on the other side of the phone were all the same, not real people and not worthy of investment. This chapter examines how the dating apps blocked intimacy for some, and yet others were able to tap into an ‘imagined intimacy’ via dating apps.
