Life for LGBT persons today in many ways doesn’t come close to resembling life at the time of the 1969 Stonewall riots. Marriage equality, for instance, was virtually inconceivable then. And the idea that the President of the United States would support the freedom of same-sex couples to marry, was entirely out of the question.
Similarly, a mere 10 years ago, it would have been hard to imagine that mobile technology would alter how we find and form connections — especially for gay men. From my perspective, the efforts of gay rights champions and gay men’s love affair with technology have coalesced to alter our social lives. Look around in major U.S. “gayborhoods” and you’re likely to see a much altered scene of people and businesses present, and a lot of male faces buried in the screens of their smartphones.
First generation dating apps are viewed as the most promising place — by far — to find a hookup, with over 50 percent of the respondents ranking it number one in a list of several possible uses for these apps. According to the men in our survey, prior to the advent of dating apps, bars held that title, but they are now a distant second.
We asked men to indicate the type of relationship they use the app to find; 66 percent said they use them to seek long-term potential, 64 percent to find friends. So the majority of men we surveyed use these apps hoping to find more than a fun fling.
