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BORED GHOSTS AND ANXIOUS TEXT GAMES: HOW DATING APPS ALGORITHMICALLY
 CHANNEL THE DESIRE FOR INTIMACY INTO ANXIOUS ENGAGEMENT

This article presents two findings from 50 in-depth interviews of
 daters using OkCupid, Tinder, and Bumble. The first finding shows that respondents began
 using dating apps like Tinder and Bumble because they wanted to engage in dialogical
 exchanges to get to know their matches, something they felt the elaborate essays on OkCupid
 rendered redundant. The second finding shows that the intimate exchanges they sought on
 dating apps were hard to find. Instead of intimacy, they encountered anxious text games
 exacerbated by the widespread practice of ghosting. These findings indicate how the distinct
 algorithms employed by OkCupid, Tinder, and Bumble cultivate particular feelings, moods, and
 modes of subjectivity. While OkCupid’s algorithm cultivated entrepreneurs of themselves
 seeking to optimize their intimate relationships, dating apps cultivate the digital unbored:
 users compelled to swipe away the angst-inducing boredom of waiting for texts that always
 may never come. Dating apps render searches for intimacy fraught with anxiety and
 substantial connections hard to find. But they are well calibrated to the exigencies of
 platform capitalism, where social relations are as likely to be sold as things, especially
 when they vanish as quickly as they appear – like ghosts.