Exploring The Impact of Social Dating Applications on Relationships During the Covid-19 Pandemic Among Young Adults
2.1 Analysis of Dating Applications: Previous Study
2.1.4 Comparison between Tinder and Baituljannah
47 Batituljannah and MyJodoh.net are similar in that the age of registration for the website must be at least 18 years old (The Star, 2021). In comparison to Baituljannah and other Muslim dating websites, it can be stated that online dating in the Muslim community is not prevalent and has been practised since 2002.
48 to meet in person (Adam et al., 2020). However, the social dating app Baituljannah's notion is that couples will converse in pairs and be supervised by a 'third party' from Baituljannah. A team of 12 people manages and supervises all activities on this digital Muslim matchmaking network. 365 days a year to avoid any interference and conform to Islamic norms (Arshad, 2019).
Tinder displays the photo of prospective matches once you set up an account, but only one at a time. The user must swipe right to like the possible match. Swiping left shows that the user is not interested in the other person. Tinder considers a match and allows conversation between users only if both users like each other's photos. Users would no longer have to cope with unsolicited e- mails or unwelcome efforts to contact them, as is common on online dating sites (Timmermans &
de Caluwé, 2017). Meanwhile, the Baituljannah social dating application provides a list of matches, and Baituljannah users can send messages to those on the prospected list respectively.
Baituljannah is a social dating app that uses algorithms to find matches. Each match has their own biodata, which includes their age, gender, educational background, height and weight, and marital status (Zawawi, 2018). Due to their marital status and interest in the application, married men are spotted openly utilising this social dating application to discover a potential second wife prospect, as per shariah regulations. Islam allows a Muslim man to marry four women as long as he is capable of providing for all of his wives. As for social dating applications like Tinder, its matching process emphasises physical appearance and mutual attraction over complicated algorithms based on personality, interests, and preferences. Interaction choices are solely based on the other user's picture, a short bio, mutual Facebook friends and interests, as well
49 as distance. As a result, Tinder users may be more inclined than online dating site users to objectify potential partners, thus jeopardising their desire to commit to one of them (Finkel et al., 2012).
Tinder's swiping interface has a limited number of technologically supported filtering options. Filtering in this scenario extended beyond appearance to include other identity elements such as perceived education level and socioeconomic status indicators. Unlike traditional dating sites, which frequently request information such as height, weight, race, and educational level (Hancock et al., 2007). When it comes to the Baituljannah dating application, it still uses the traditional dating elements of essential information from its users, the only difference is that while Tinder allows users to put in their names, Baituljannah does not (Ley, 2019). Instead, it asks for basic information such as sex, age, educational background, and marital status.
According to a study, casual sex was only one of several classes of motivations for using Tinder, with Love being the most common and while 46 per cent of users had gone on a date with a Tinder match, only 19 per cent had a one-night stand with a match (Gordon et al., 2019). By looking at the findings, we can notice the difference in terms of casual sex between the two dating apps, Tinder and Baituljannah. It is clearly stated that the dating app is sharia friendly. Therefore, casual sex will never be an issue as Zaidon (2021), Baituljannah is a more secure platform that allows its users to find long-term relationships that will eventually lead to lifelong committed relationships.
There has recently been a great deal of discussion in the non-academic press as to whether Tinder is predominantly used as a "hook-up" app or whether its users are looking for long-term
50 relationships (Sales & Lapowsky, 2015). Excluding the CEO of Tinder claims, no independent data has been provided to support or refute either of these arguments (Petersen, 2015).
Baituljannah, on the other hand, is a more secure platform that allows its users to find long-term relationships that will eventually lead to lifelong committed relationships, particularly in the Muslim community. According to Forbes (2021), it has been mentioned that the app has resulted in over 10,000 weddings among its Malaysian, Bruneian, and Singaporean users, intending to reach one million users by the end of 2021.
According to Arshad (2019), social-dating apps like Baituljannah offer a free subscription to the dating app, but there are many limitations in using the free account, such as a time limit for you to have a conversation with your suggested match, whereas Tinder does not charge a fee, but fees are imposed to enjoy the premium version of Tinder and works in a slightly different way (Gatter & Hodkinson, 2016). A national representative survey of 4,002 adults was conducted in 2009 to look into how people met their current partners. Between 2007 and 2009, 22% of heterosexual couples met over the Internet, making it the second most common way to meet a spouse, second only to meeting through friends (Rosenfeld & Thomas, 2010). This includes social dating apps like Tinder, but it is forbidden in the Islamic religion for people of the same sex to be in a relationship.
However, today's youth, particularly those involved in the LGBTQ community, find comfort in dating applications like Tinder, Grindr, and others. Because they may not receive assistance in their daily lives, they turn to social media and dating applications for solace (Elgersm, 2019). In Baituljannah it is built following Islamic Shariah Laws. Extramarital sexual contacts are
51 prohibited, according to the traditional interpretation of the Sharia, and are punishable under the law. Unlawful sexual intercourse is known as “Zina”, is a serious crime and it is prohibited in the Muslim community (Rehman & Polymenopoulou, 2012). This portion of the study shows the contrast between the two dating apps, Tinder and Baituljannah.
According to Adzmi (2016), Malaysian women use tinder for fun and to meet new people, but it is not an effective approach to start a relationship considering three of the females interviewed had their own motives and are only interested in having fun. In conclusion, Tinder is more flexible and is easily accessible to everyone, whereas Baituljannah is more geared toward the Muslim community and the goal is to find long-term companionship.
2.2. Theoretical Background