Love Me Tinder: A Quest Between Self-esteem and Algorithms Transparency

French journalist Judith Duportail published this year a book on Tinder algorithms’ impact on love dynamics, ‘Love Under Algorithm’. Though the book is only available in French at the moment, her name is not unfamiliar to English speakers thanks to a 2017 piece she published in The Guardian on the same topic and which was shared over 8,000 times.

Tinder — the app on which 2 billion matches happen daily spanning across 190 countries — not only mediates but also shapes the way we love. In her new book, Judith Duportail shares new information on the matter and a sharp yet humourous analysis of the global phenomenon. Her essay can be viewed as a call for algorithms regulation and individuals empowerment.

In a nutshell

After a break-up, an insecure Judith Duportail downloads Tinder. She becomes addicted to it and enjoys the serotonin rushes matches with men give her. But Duportail is also a journalist and she soon starts questioning the way the app works. During her research, she stumbled upon a “desirability score”, called Elo Score, which the app gives to every profile and is used to ‘better’ match people. She aims at discovering her Elo Score and how it is constructed.

The 3 key points Judith Duportail develops in her book and which I have found to be the most interesting ones to share are:

• Tinder takes financial advantage of the emotional dependency it contributes towards: the app is used as a way to boost one’s self-esteem, using “a design of addiction”. “[We] are actually looking for a form of validation” explains the author. Tinder also fabricates a sense of unsatisfaction through the seemingly infinite possibility to find better partners by keeping swiping. With so much time spent on the app, Judith Duportail questions the value of generated data. By connecting your profile with your Facebook account, Tinder could predict your relationship status and tastes, making connected data a valuable resource that could then be sold to third-parties.
• Tinder acts as a deus ex machina for relationships: due to its popularity, Tinder has huge power over how people connect and start relationships. As such, its attempts towards recreating a “sense of fate” for its matching users is quite worrisome. Judith Duportail unveils that one of Tinder’s patents provides the possibility of suggesting you new profiles based on your data. People are given an Elo score, constantly reevaluated according to new data as well as your matches, which helps matching you with similar people. The problem is that not only are users unaware of this — “love under algorithm is a game of which rules are unknown to us” — but the conceptual framework in which it all takes place seems to be based on “a patriarchal model in heterosexual relationships”. According to the journalist, men are more likely to be presented profiles of younger, less educated women on Tinder, and women profiles of older, wealthier men. A quite conservative take, in total opposition with the company’s progressive brand. “Just as if someone was introduced as Bernie Sanders but unmasked as Donald Trump” sums up the author.
• Tinder needs to be regulated due to the power it holds: as a consequence of the first two points, Judith Duportail calls for more transparency. “What is love under algorithm, if not a black box?” she wonders. Authorities should make sure that Tinder’s algorithms are treating equally and fairly users no matter their gender, sexual orientation, age or ethnicity. If you get fewer matches due to Tinder’s algorithms, then you are induced to pay for the app Premium and Boost features which is another issue dealt with in the book. Quoting ‘Weapons of Math Destruction’ author Cathy O’Neil, Judith Duportail reminds us that “algorithms are opinions” — never neutral. And as such, they require higher scrutiny both from States and individuals, who should distance themselves from the app and its potential effects on our (love) life.

My opinion: An evocative journalistic piece which explores what it means to find love in the digital age

Judith Duportails embarks us in an exploration of the app as well as a personal quest. All along, she is a two-fold character: a woman suffering from a break-up who uses the app to fulfill her challenges — her emotional dependency is described in a quite moving way — and a journalist whose analysis is motivated by accessing and understanding those powerful yet hidden algorithms.

One may expect tension would arise in this situation. After all, she is the subject of her own experiment. But Judith Duportail transcends it. She gives us a rare peek into what investigative journalism looks like. A work that makes you develop behavioural disorders, harass your potential sources and struggle with your doubts, only for some of them to be nurtured by your investigation.

Tension is a driver for the investigation here. Judith Duportail confronts her personal experience, fueled by ambivalent feelings towards the app, with experts’ findings on Tinder’s inner mechanisms. Her book is more than the sum of a Tinder addict confession and an external journalistic piece. She continuously challenges both her personal opinion and her journalistic work, reaching quite mind-blowing conclusions while using a very entertaining style. This makes ‘Love Under Algorithm’ definitely worth swiping right.

‘L’Amour sous algorithme’ by Judith Duportail, published in March 2019 at the Editions Goutte d’Or (Paris, France). 230 pages, 17€.

A huge thanks to my reviewers, Arpan and Maryan, who shared valuable input to turn this article into a better version of itself.