Research Proposal

Submitted to:

Dr. Jennifer Kipgen

Centre for Social Work

Name: Devdarshan Chetia

Roll No: GM2018LE027

Subject: SW4
1. INTRODUCTION

If you are in a bus, you might notice that most people are on their smart phones either listening
to music or talking to someone. Smartphones come in different shapes and sizes but they are
essential to everyone nowadays. So much so that it has become a part of our ‘pop culture’. But
it would be useless if there was no invention of Internet. Internet can be considered as the
modern marvel and together with smartphone it has literally taken over the world. Social
networking ranks one of the most influential ways of communication nowadays. As a society
are depended on interactions and communications. That’s why humans are defined as social
animals. If we take away the socialization from any human, we will only be just another animal
roaming wild and free in our concrete jungles. Socialization is a fundamental process and we
are exposed to it since the beginning of our life. As we grow up, we form many relationships
with varied dynamics through which we learn our surroundings and our society as well as
ourselves. Romantic relationships form an essential part of a youth. But there has been a
significant change in the way socialization is taking place in this period. In India, this revolution
is taken up and promoted by both private and public sector. Initiatives such as Digital India have
been put out by the government to promote digital literacy. Smartphone and telecom
advertisements follow distinct narratives in India these days. A 70-year-old is using google maps
through internet to locate “must see” places on his vacation in Goa. A restaurant waiter is
learning English by watching YouTube videos in his free time (India Internet Opportunity, 2017).
Such ads show the changes that India is going through in the digital world. Demographic
cohorts such as millennials, gen Y and gen Z are the ones who are influence the most in this
period of technological advancement. Forming romantic and sexual relationships is an
important aspect of young people’s lives. New media technologies have changed the ways
young people interact with one another, and many are learning how to negotiate their
romantic and sexual relationships within these new contexts. (Hallikainen, 2015). This paper
tries to bring out the interplay between social media and youths in terms of dating and
relationships. How the new culture of internet exploration have affected finding relationship
and dating.
Miller (2013) has argued that we can have two identities at this day and age and we are
communicating through both, as ‘most people now engage with a mix of communication and
identity platforms which usually include a multiplicity of online and offline identities without
any clear break between these’. There is no radical change in our socialization. But after the
booming of social media, we have shifted our focus from our face to face interactions to a
screen. We text rather than talk and the difference in our internet identity and our real identity
is varying a lot. Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp and dating apps
such as Tinder are quite popular among the youths. The research has been largely based on
these apps and sites. The researcher have tried to collect data on how social media and dating
app has affected the relationship and dating scene in Guwahati. This inquiry has led him to
follow up on why exactly the youth of the city use social media and dating app and how they
perceive the usages and its efficiency. The growing atmosphere in today’s era look at
communication as a very different element than it was seen as by the earlier generation.
Writing letters was time costly and was taken as a hobby rather than necessity as taken today
by the youth. The researcher has tried to highlight the changes in the norms of relationship
after the inclusion of social media and dating apps into the lives of the youth of Guwahati. This
paper primarily focuses on the rise of social media and dating app as a social intermediate and
what has been the aftermath.

The study has been divided in eight chapters. The researcher has written about social media
and dating apps in his introductory chapter and tried to provide an idea to the reader on why
this topic is relevant in today’s era. The second chapter focuses on the literature reviews. It has
been sub divided further into four broader topics namely, Rise of Social Media and Dating apps,
Motivation for the virtual screen, Relationships and Online platforms and Concerns and issues.
Next chapter focuses on the methodology this research follows and what approaches has been
taken to conduct this research. The next section concentrates on the data collection as well as
findings and analysis of this study followed by discussion and limitations of this research. Lastly,
the research is summarized in the conclusion section. References of material used and past
studies are the end of this study.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Rise of Social Media and dating apps

Social networking is so power that it is estimated that users of social media and other
networking sites are estimated to reach 2.5 billion by 2018, around a third of earth’s entire
population, Statista,(2015). This along with easy availability of smartphones has brought in the
current dynamics that we see around the globe. Analysis of ‘Daily Users’ reveal that both in
Urban and Rural India, the younger generations are the most prolific users of internet and the
biggest services accessed in Urban India are online communications (e-mail etc) and social
networking, Internet in India (2016). Youth are functioning at a certain level at this day, where
they are forming their own norms and essential social and technological competencies which
will help them fully participate in the society they are creating (Horst et al., 2009). Nowadays, if
you are someone who is in your 20s and teens you won’t ring a door bell on your friend’s
house. Rather, you would just text them to open the door. People go to the internet in order to
know someone better be it their likes or disllikes rather than just build a conversation and get
to know them.

2.2 Motivation for the virtual arena

The most prominent feature of new types of media is how their interactivity is based, which
enables the ability of users to put content in response to a source or communication partner
(Ha & James, 1998). ). According to the uses and gratification theory, users use certain types of
mass media which fulfill specific needs and desires. Although this theory specifies mass media,
it has been successfully applied to understand why people use social media (Foregger, 2008;
Ryan et al.,2014; Shao, 2009; Urista, Dong, & Day, 2009). The literature has suggested that
physical, social, as well as psychosocial gratifications stimulate users’ consumption of online
applications (Valkenburg & Peter, 2007; Van De Wiele & Tong, 2014). According to this theory,
the amount of social capital we get from using internet as an intermediate is very high and that
is why we keep using it in order to maintain our social ties. This dependency along with newer
variances of social medias have intrigued us in such a way that we don’t see anything past that
anymore.

2.3 Relationships and Online platform

The construction of online dating profiles has found a “shopping” mentality for selecting
partners (Gibbs, Ellison & Heino, 2006). The emerging adults look for companionship same way
they shop for a new shirt online. They try scrolling, swiping left and right and finally reviewing
it. Match.com promotes itself by providing “millions of possibilities to meet your match.” New
media technologies provide young people with different tools for negotiating the various stages
of their relationships. . This changes how we look at dating completely. The inclusions of social
media and dating apps into our personal lives have made our circle of friends bigger and
smaller at the same time. Bigger by exposing our personal details to several people we usually
wouldn’t have done it and smaller by how easy it is to share our details in one place in the
internet where everyone can access it. This has lead to a projection of our “best” selves over
the internet. Due to this, we have offline and online personalities which not necessary match
with each other. Miller (2013) has argued that there is no clear distinction between online and
offline practices, as ‘most people now engage with a mix of communication and identity
platforms which usually include a multiplicity of online and offline identities without any clear
break between these. Relationships online begins with a mediated communication systems
where people can hide and feel some sort of protection which face to face communication
don’t provide.

2.4 Concerns and Issues

Social Media and Dating Apps also bring in many concerns which people are wary of. The
internet is filled with people who “ghost”. “bench” or “zombie”. People are skeptical about
using it because they simply do not believe in it, they lack trust in the whole idea of meeting
and dating someone online. Fraudsters see it as a way of meeting potential unsuspecting
victims. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (2012) found that, in the USA, The Online Dating
Romance Scam was one of the Top 5 Internet scams reported in 2011. Some believe that it
makes cheating easy among couples who are married, encourages reckless communications,
some even just do it for the fun of it without pausing to realize they could be toying with the
emotions of their online partner, security of sensitive issues discussed online as there is a
general idea that no information is safe online.
3. RATIONALE

Social media has become so essential that it is almost an extension of our selves. We are
completely surrounded by hashtags and retweets. Because of such immense and rapid change
in our lifestyle, our relationship quo is also changing. We are looking at love and dating in a very
different manner through these dating and social media sites. We are looking for love through
swipes and sites. These factors have intrigued me. Our generation are simultaneously forming
and updating our own society and how we are interacting with each other. We are the leading
generation of instant gratification where our emotional turbulences are somehow and
someway find a way to the internet. Be it agitation or romanticizing. Relationships and dating is
the most volatile business that we see in market based on interests of the milennials, gen y and
gen z. Thus, because I am personally involved in this era of turbulences, this area of research is
interesting and I would like to focus more on how social media and dating app scene has been
in Indian context.
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOY

4.1 Statement of the problem

This research is based on the rise of social media and dating apps as a social intermediate.
Through this research, there is a effort to answer why there is this surge in the usage of social
media and dating apps in order to seek new relationships. The researcher tries to answer how
has this rise affects the relationship and dating scene too. There haven’t been enough studies
conducted in Indian context. This stems many queries on how social media and dating apps are
perceived in India. The researcher feels this area needs to be explored intensively.

4.2 Objective

 To know how people perceive social media in their life.

 To understand the importance social media has in their relationships.
 To find why people look for relationships through social media and dating apps.

4.3 Research Question

 How essential in social media in people’s day to day life?

 How has behavior and lifestyle changed after the inclusion of social media in their life?
 Why to people tend to use dating apps?
 What are the concerns relating relationships through social media and dating apps?

4.4 Research Design

Researcher has used descriptive statistics in order to develop the research aptly. Researcher
have also used qualitative approach and used semi structured interviews in order to collect the
data.

4.5 Sampling

Researcher has used purposive sampling with a sampling size of 13 youths ranging from 18 to
24 years of age. Also, interview schedule is used as a tool for this research.

4.6 Ethical Consideration

Since this research deals with individual’s private experiences, ethical considerations are to be
high stressed. The information is kept private and one must note not to disclose any of this
information. Guidelines need to be set so as informed consent is taken prior to interviewing the
respondents. And offer to withdraw at any time if the respondent feels uncomfortable or isn’t
able to carry on the interview.

REFERENCES

Christina, F. (2012). Online daters, be warned! 1 in 10 profiles are scams, report reveals,
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Foregger, S. K. (2008). Uses and gratifications of Facebook.com. Dissertations Abstracts

International Section A, 69: UMI No.3331906. Michigan State University; 2008.

Gibbs, J. L., Ellison, N. B., & Heino, R. D. (2006). Self-presentation in online personals: The role
of anticipated future interaction, self-disclosure, and perceived success in Internet dating.
Communication Research, 33(2), 1–26.

Ha, L., & James, E. L. (1998). Interactivity re-examined: A baseline analysis of early business
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Horst, H. A., Herr-Stephenson, B., & Robinson, L. (2009).Media ecologies. In M. Ito et al. (Eds.),
Hanging out,messing around, and geeking out (pp. 29 – 78).

Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (1973). Uses and gratifications research. Public Opinion
Quarterly, 37(4), 509-523.

Smith, A., & Duggan, M. (2013, October 20). Online Dating & Relationships.

Sundar, S. S., & Limperos, A. (2013). Uses and Grats 2.0: New Gratifications for New Media.
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 57 (4), 504-525.

Van De Wiele, C., & Tong, S. T. (2014). Breaking boundaries: The uses & gratifications of grindr.
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous
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