IT-samhällets kärleksbrev : En kvalitativ innehållsanalys av kommunikationen via nätdejting

Sammanfattning: Abstract   Author: Kristin Näs Title: The technology society’s love letters – a qualitative analysis of communication through internet dating. Level: BA Thesis in Communication Location: University of Kalmar Language: Swedish Number of pages: 53   Keywords: communication, dating, web dating, gendering talk, interaction, flirting, the internet, contact, communities. Summary: A qualitative study on the subject of internet dating and how people using internet dating chooses to present them self and how they choose to communicate with others to create contact. Internet dating is a phenomenon that is continually growing. 2 million people in Sweden are singles today and more than half of them have tried internet dating at least once. The purpose of this study was to research the way people choose to present them self and how the communication on an internet dating site is used. My question I wanted to answer with this study was – How do people present themselves best on a virtual meeting place for singles? I choose methods hermeneutic and a qualitative analysis because I wanted to study the members of an internet dating site and how they communicated and presented themselves by profiles and mail. I also choose to do four interviews to get a deeper insight in the subject of internet dating. I choose theories like Thompson’s three interactions perspectives and Robert Hoppers differences between women and men speech and use of language. These theories would show me how people interact on the internet in a situation where they are looking for a love partner and it will also show me how gender takes part in that type of world. I was able to get lot of text materials and with my interview my analysis showed me that people turn to internet dating because it seems to be harder to get a real contact in real life. People appreciate the easy access of the dating sites and the possibility to put themself out there for others to contact. What communication that is the best to establish a contact is talking about common interests or something from the other person’s profile. Also topics like occupation and event coming up is successful. When it comes to gender and differences between them or how power takes place it doesn’t show. It seems very equal and no one has the upper hand. The men however seems to be fighting for the women’s attention but the statistics say that the members on a dating site are equal between the sexes. The way preferred to present themselves seems to be by presenting occupation and interests. Some even present what qualities they are looking for in a partner and this also says something about the person.  At the end of the study the analysis is presented and the answer to my question. There are also suggestions to future studies presented and with a subject like internet dating there are no limits, only your imagination can stop you!