Chapter 14: Motivations for Dating App Use Among Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men in South Africa

Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBM) are motivated to connect on dating platforms. Such digital enactments reshape diverse sexualities in the Global South. Uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, which posits that consumers select and use media to fulfil needs, provides a base to explore and test these motivations. Based on this notion that personal reasons exist for media use, we explored why GBM in South Africa (SA) use dating apps. The overall hypothesis tested for this across 13 motivations. A secondary aim was to explore if a relationship exists between these motivations and sociodemographic characteristics. An online survey containing an adapted version of the Tinder Motivation Scale (TMS), which is based on U&G theory, assessed GBM’s (n = 144) motivations for app use. The adapted 56-item Likert scale measured motivations across 13 subscales. Respondents endorsed socialising and getting to know others of the same sexual orientation on the likely side. For the relationship of motivations with sociodemographic characteristics, those of other races as a group in comparison to White GBM used apps because of belongingness and peer pressure. Area of residence also showed statistical significance, with GBM living in townships found to be more likely to use apps for flirting and improving social skills compared to those in suburbs. These findings, interpreted within a South African context, differ from those GBM communities in the Global North where safer sexual outlets and kinship may exist and social affirmation for sexual diversity is more easily facilitated.