“Swiping” in South Korea

Abstract Based on a survey of 101 South Korean generation MZ Tinder users and in-depth interviews with twelve of them, this study investigates how members of this generation—who are often characterized as giving up on traditional markers of adulthood, such as marriage, home ownership and starting a family—use Tinder, and how/why they make the dating, sex, and relationship decisions they do. The main findings include that (1) Rather than passively giving up, MZers are pushing back at the constraining circumstances of their generation. (2) Dating is experienced as a way to find small but certain happiness. (3) Dating apps facilitate the separation of dating and other aspects of social life, and the increased privacy enables different users to experience varying “sexual scripts,” rather than conforming to rigid social expectations. (4) Living their novel “sexual scripts” on Tinder produces different consequences in rewards and risks for men and women.