Exploring The Impact of Social Dating Applications on Relationships During the Covid-19 Pandemic Among Young Adults
5.3 Research Objective 2
123 emphasise or clarify their interpersonal relationship goals with the hopes of finding a romantic partner with similar goals. Simultaneously, some informants stated that the settings on Baituljannah was more secure and reassuring to use since the application comply with Islamic regulations, featured a third party to supervise everything between users and required personal information such as Identity Card to ensure a person's genuineness, which is aligned with Kamaruddin (2019) that all conversations will take place through the system and will be monitored and checked as part of the terms and conditions upon using the application, as well as for the sake of customer comfort.
124 Through the analysis from Chapter 2, Sales & Lapowsky (2015) argued that social dating applications such as Tinder are widely labelled as “hookup apps” as users can easily interact with interested persons in their nearby neighbourhood while Wiederhold (2021) against the statement that users use social dating applications to find potential romantic partners and other types of social interaction due to a strong sense of isolation and boredom. This is also supported by Sumter et al.
(2017) that users are often motivated by more than just hooking up when they utilised these social dating applications. Hence, this study discovered that most of the Malaysian young adults used social dating applications during the pandemic was because they are bored and seek for some sort of relationships such as friendships and romantic relationships, which proven to be aligned with the studies of Wiederhold (2021) and Sumber et al. (2017). However, as explained by Sales &
Lapowsky (2015), few individuals still believed that users on social dating applications are hunting for hookups during the pandemic. Therefore, the researchers have concluded that the majority of Malaysian young adults seek emotional bonds and social connections to alleviate their loneliness rather than looking for hookups that put their health at risk.
On the other hand, in regarding the informants’ own intention to use social dating applications during the pandemic, the informants have reflected their perception concerning their intention to use social dating applications based on their needs and wants. This study determined that users of social dating applications wanted to secure a romantic relationship during the pandemic since they were lonely and hoping for something serious via social dating applications.
As such, it is aligned with Pietromonaco & Overall (2020) stated that the pandemic creates a sense of loss in interpersonal forums that reduce the quality of life with unmet individual needs. Hence,
125 according to Joshi et al. (2020) as mentioned in Chapter 2, individuals desire emotional attachments where dating encounters are a pleasant way to meet that need. Meanwhile, this study also found that users were bored and wanted to make new friends on social dating applications since they were looking for some human engagements during the pandemic. It is aligned with the studies of Odekerken-Schröder et al. (2020) and Kar (2020) as many limitations prevented to build up physical connections and felt isolated without emotional support during the lockdown, which has led to an increase in the use of social dating applications to overcome social loneliness.
Additionally, Shapiro et al. (2017) claimed that those who are in committed relationships started using social dating applications as it is not just singles who own the privileged to do so.
Alexopoulos et al. (2020) as mentioned in Chapter 2 has explained that user’s intention to commit infidelity where people who met their romantic partner on a social dating app will be more willing to seek for another possible relationship even if they are already in a committed relationship. While both Tinder and Baituljannah considered as social dating application, users especially married men on Baituljannah can openly find their second up to the fourth wife under Sharia regulations (Zawawi, 2018). Hence, to validate the statements of Alexopoulos et al. (2020) and Zawawi (2018), this study shown that some users will continue to use social dating applications since their faith enables them to have polyamorous marriages and it is legal and follows Sharia law. However, this study also indicated that majority of those in favour of not continue to use social dating applications while in a relationship was because to give their partner a sense of trust and also assurance to avoid their partner from overthinking, which contradicts the idea of continuing to use social dating applications while in a relationship. Therefore, the researchers may assume that tolerance of using
126 social dating applications while in a relationship among Malaysian young adults is low and is dependent on the user's self-control and religious background.
In regarding the usage frequency of social dating applications during the pandemic, the study noticed that users’ usage on social dating applications have increased to use on a daily basis due to boredom and need for some social interactions, which against the statement by Daniel Adam et al. (2020) by claiming that the usage of social dating applications is low during the pandemic.
Furthermore, the study shown that usage on social dating applications increased during the pandemic was because boredom led to desire social interactions to fulfill personal needs such friendships, romantic relationships and seeking emotional bonds, instead of looking for sexual encounters in the midst of MCO, and health concerns. Different motives in using social dating applications are important to discover the consequences behind it (Welch & Morgan, 2018).
Therefore, the researchers concluded that motivated behaviour may altered as a consequence of new barriers to human connections, in which could influence the behaviour people hold concerning social dating applications.
Despite the fact that the emergence of social dating applications has drastically changed the dating scene, especially during the pandemic period, Daniel Adam et al. (2020), Balan et al.
(2021) and Müller (2021) as mentioned in Chapter 2 argued that the Malaysian young adults still prefer to find their partners through traditional approaches due to low acceptance, inappropriate for their culture to use and not ready or do not believe in using online dating applications to meet and form relationships. In this study, it is consistent with the scholars mentioned above as social
127 dating applications were not their first choice for finding potential partners because individuals prefer to get to know someone in person so that they can learn about their true personality and appearance. They felt that users who use social dating applications can falsify their identity by uploading a fake profile picture and giving incorrect personal information, or that they just do not trust the applications.
Nevertheless, the research conducted by Abubakar et al. (2020) led researchers to assume that there is a significant number of Malaysians still priotising using social dating applications.
However, this study found an insufficient sample size to support that social dating applications will be the primary choice for finding possible partners. In this study, the number of individuals who disagreed with the notion of using social dating applications while in a relationship far outnumbered those who agreed. Among the individuals who priotising social dating application to find the partners, the reason provided was because social dating applications increased chances of finding potential partners, and would return to social dating apps if manage to lose the current relationship or needed to find a second marriage. To summarise it, the researchers have agreed that the majority of Malaysian young adults do not trust social dating applications to help them discover possible partners because of the unknown background of the person they matchup with and potential risks of the relationship created.