Thirty-one theses on dating capitalism
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PART ONE — THE PORTFOLIO
I
Revenue up, payers down
II
Success ends subscriptions
III
Manufactured scarcity
IV
One owner, many brands
Hidden ranking, patented swipe
VI
Volume produces refusal
VII
The app is the destination
VIII
Demographic pricing
IX
Fabricated interest
X
Safety became an upgrade
XI
Intentionality drives growth
XII
Queer platforms consolidated
XIII
Contraction intensifies extraction
XIV
Free users are inventory
XV
Global risk, concentrated revenue
XVI
Health data as telemetry
XVII
Data as national security
XVIII
Membership reveals identity
XIX
Identification without breach
XX
Profiles sold as commodities
XXI
The platform remembers more
XXII
Community versus its workers
XXIII
Extraction is optional
XXIV
Refusal is not innocence
XXV
The grid is optional
XXVI
Filtering is not sorting
XXVII
The applications work
XXVIII
Lifeline and trap
XXIX
Loneliness is the market
XXX
Companionship without reciprocity
XXXI
Named, not stopped
THESIS VII
PART ONE — THE PORTFOLIO
The application is the destination rather than the route.
Matches accumulate. Meetings remain optional.
A psychoanalytic reading of the libidinal economy of dating platforms concludes that their function is the exploitation of desire and its redirection toward the app itself and its accumulation of matches, rather than toward any meeting outside it. Illouz had already described internet dating as importing a market mentality into intimate life, one that unleashes fantasy while inhibiting romantic feeling. Bandinelli and Gandini describe users operating as small brands managing assets in a social relationship market.
EVIDENCE SNAPSHOT
Browse→match
PRIMARY LOOP
The core loop keeps users browsing and matching
Engagement
MEASURED
Platform activity is measured as commercial engagement
Not tracked
UNMEASURED
Quality of connection is not a primary metric
Dual role
USER ROLE
The user operates as both product and customer
KEY FINDING
A psychoanalytic reading of the libidinal economy of dating platforms concludes that their function is the exploitation of desire and its redirection toward the app itself and its accumulation of matches, rather than toward any meeting outside it.
IMPLICATION
Searching for a person can become attachment to the process of searching.
Source apparatus
SOURCE 01
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PEER-REVIEWED SCHOLARSHIP
Bandinelli, C., & Bandinelli, A. (2021). What does the app want? A psychoanalytic interpretation of dating apps' libidinal economy. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 26(2), 181–198.
SOURCE 02
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PEER-REVIEWED SCHOLARSHIP
Illouz, E. (2007). Cold intimacies: The making of emotional capitalism. Polity Press.
SOURCE 03
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PEER-REVIEWED SCHOLARSHIP
Bandinelli, C., & Gandini, A. (2022). Dating apps: The uncertainty of marketised love. Cultural Sociology, 16(3), 423–441.