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Albert Rafetseder (computer science / communication networks) Cooperative Systems Research Group, Faculty of Computer Science, University of Vienna, Austria |
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Information and communication technology permeates all areas of our lives, including private and intimate ones such as partnership and sexuality. While operating mostly invisibly, it forms the very substrate that facilitates many of today’s services, and from this position of power it mediates and surveys active, human-initiated as well as automated, operational communication. Online Dating services are no exception in the way that they follow market dynamics and technological or artistic trends in app design. Their other aspects are rather novel, e.g. the way they introduce dynamics into the social networks they form, how they fuel and foster specific patterns in human communication, or their monetary and non-monetary economical ramifications from engagement and pay-for-use to presenting and rating oneself and others. I view Online Dating as a prototypical representative service for a discussion about the opportunities and limitations of technology design, from the intimate use and real-life outcomes to the human-facing aspects of, e.g., apps and websites, and down into the infrastructure. My hope is for better-educated developers to understand the societal consequences of their professional performance better, create more transparent services, and enable users to take better-informed decisions when using technology. In addition, I consider computer science as a scientific discipline to be overdue for sincere self-reflection about the ever-simplifying, problem-solving focused mindset it represents and continues to teach. For the interdisciplinary workshop, I would like to reflect my insights into technical conditions and self-conceptions that shape technological artefacts, and build bridges to other scientific disciplines to foster the mutual understanding of viewpoints. This is as much a desire for an exchange about Online Dating as a particularly representative case, as well as a step towards posing the bigger questions of scientists’ and engineers’ roles and responsibilities in society, their goals, ambitions, and professional decency, etc. which are too often postponed in my field. |
Christian Löw (human factors in technology design, qualitative research methods in informatics) Cooperative Systems Research Group, Faculty of Computer Science, University of Vienna, Austria |
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As a computer scientist with a background in human-centered computing, interested in human factors in technology design and multidisciplinary work informing design and evaluation of technology, I would like to discuss two challenges that seem most relevant to me: (1) How to evaluate the interplay of Online Dating platforms and their effect on social practice, and subsequently how to derive implications for future design directions from this, and (2) How to evaluate user experience of Online Dating platforms. I feel that (1) is already better described by other position statements submitted to this workshop and visible on this webpage, so further description is omitted. Ad (2): I am interested in the interplay of interface and interaction design of Online Dating platforms and applications and the subsequent user experience they elicit. On a meta-level, this interest relates to a critique of the common understanding of user experience as a technical term and its improvement and optimization, which, in my opinion, is too crude and narrow and, by lacking a broader view on the concept and setting of the technological application at hand, frequently fails to capture determining factors of a positive, desirable user experience. Within the context of Online Dating, this manifests itself by (1) a lack of denomination of what desirable user experience is or entails and (2) “contamination” of the intimate setting of technology designed to support its users in seeking out human intimacy and relationships with patterns of user experience not sensibly attuned with this purpose, e.g. in applying overly playful and addictive design patterns. I would like to contribute to research towards a future of technology in relation to human intimacy that, in broad terms, enables users to safely pursue social contacts. This entails a sensible, ongoing evaluation of the interplay of such technology and its effect on social practice, as well as the critical disambiguation of other influencing, e.g. capitalistic factors. |
Robert Rothmann (sociology, law) Research Institute AG & Co KG, Vienna, Austria |
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In recent years, online dating has evolved from a shady niche industry to a remarkable mainstream phenomenon. For the first time in human history, the Thus, dating sites have the potential to transform our current notion of pick up and falling in love, while raising significant questions about the agency of technology and its socio-technical impact. On the one hand dating sites offer a low-threshold option for initial contacts and facilitate emancipatory Beside issues like chat bot scam or sexual harassment, critical reference can be made to reductionistic tendencies in the design of these platforms, which are evident at least in the absence of the usual social context and body-to-body behavior and ultimately determines communication in a way that personal emotions are turned into computable data. By this means, online dating results in an economic quantification of intimate practicesand fosters a kind of digital positivism (Fuchs 2017), whereby the Instead of focusing on the monitoring and commodification of users' sensitive data, an ideal future development of dating technologies should seek to address a real human-centric approach that primarily serves the common good of love, whereby the principles of digital humanism can function as general ethical guidelines. Successful interdisciplinary cooperation in this matter would be a collaboration of different scientific disciplines (like humanities, social sciences, and |