Tindering in the Field: Dating Apps, Ethnography, and Discomfort

Abstract

This article explores the ethical and safety implications of using dating apps as a method in ethnographic research. Drawing on my experience with this approach whilst conducting fieldwork across social and physical boundaries in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank, I explore the discomforts that arise in the process of using platforms associated with sex and romance. Attending to my own discomforts as well as those of my professional peers and my interlocutors, I make recommendations for an ethical approach to the use of dating apps as a networking tool. In the process I critique the nature of professionalism in anthropology, locating it in patriarchal and orientalist western values. I then unpack the unique affordances of and discourses around safety and dating app use, outlining where anthropologists can benefit from including these in their ethnographic practice.