The 7 deadly souls of dating apps

For many of the younger generations, we’ve been adapted to carry a tiny computer in our pockets... the cell phone. In this day and age, technology has allowed us to meet and engage with others in a wide variety of cellular applications. 

With these cell-phones, the singles community have found it as a new way of life in order to meet someone for a relationship. It’s quite observant that the system of these match-making applications (i.e. Bumble, Hinge, Tinder, Grindr, etc.) is interesting and entertaining to be able to communicate with other singles while hoping for a potential relationship of some sort. 

However, since one can only communicate to the other individual through a digital screen barrier, there are many negative propositions that can come with using social dating apps. Typing the first word to a conversation can be the first step into a dangerous situation and one can never be sure of who they’re actually talking to. Deep conversations can further the relationship without knowing the other person’s real intentions and can lead to mental, physical/sexual abuse in person.

This leads me to the topic of my senior thesis. I will be analyzing the main toxic personalities that can come from social dating apps. These observations have come from personal experience and from various experiences taken through an anonymous survey. 

The Proposal

My thesis will be focusing on creating a Public Service Announcement Poster Series that combines the ideas of the board game Guess Who and the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins to display the personalities of the different kinds of toxic people met through social dating applications that can lead to mental, physical, and sexual abuse/harassment.

In the popular children’s two-player guessing game, Guess Who (invented in 1979 by Ora and Theo Coster), each player starts the game with a board that includes images of 24 people and their first name with all the images standing up. Each player selects a card of their choice from a separate pile of cards containing the same 24 images. Players alternate asking various “yes” or “no” questions to eliminate questions. The object of the game is to be the first to determine which card one’s opponent has selected. I’ve included this element to help develop the idea of my senior thesis because the game is very metaphoric to this certain type of situation in reality with guessing who’s behind the digital barrier within these social dating apps. 

I’ve also included the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth) in assisting with the development of the different personalities that are commonly encountered on social dating apps. 

I will utilize photographed portraits of models (my friends) for my base focal point of the posters, and combined mediums of photo manipulation and digital art to display the poster series.