From 'Love Actually' to 'Love Aptually': An Investigation Into The Impact of New Social Media Technology on Gender and Sexual Scripts.

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Drawing on Sexual Script Theory, this project explores the multi-layeredways in which young people are using mobile dating applications andhow this is reconfiguring gender and sexual scripts. Sexual Script Theoryprovides the conceptual apparatus to interpret how competing moderncultural artifacts continually shape metaphorical sexual and genderscripts. This research will build upon the existing body of work whichhas used Sexual Script Theory, but will also employ insights fromScience and Technology Studies in order to also explore the impactstechnologies can have in the formation of the diverse meanings and usesof the sexual.Despite the proliferation of mobile dating applications, it is only recentlythat literature has started to address mobile dating applications as a distinctsocial phenomenon, and predominantly among gay male populations. Thisproject is interested in building on this newly emerging body of literature,as to my knowledge little or no research has been conducted whichexplicitly looks to understand the ways heterosexual users interact withmobile dating applications to reconstruct or reconfigure gender and sexualscripts.Using qualitative interviews with men and women from a variety of socioeconomicand ethnic backgrounds, this research will gather experiences,from adults, regarding their use of mobile dating applications, with theintention of understanding further their impact on the socially and sexuallyscripted nature of motivation of use, self-presentation strategies,authenticity management and perceived risks of using mobile datingapplications.