The Beehive

Exploring new apps can be a confusing and timely process. As the use of apps are highly prevalent in today’s society, it is important to have a clear understanding of their interactions with us and those around us. It is only when we foster a greater understanding toward how these apps work, can we effectively apply them to our needs and wants to better the overall experience. This is exemplified through the process known as “The Walkthrough Method”. Authors Light, Burgess and Duguay (2018) identify this as “the method involves establishing an app’s environment of expected use by identifying and describing its vision, operating model, and modes of governance” (p. 881). Therefore, the following will provide a step-by-step for the effective use of the app Bumble . The first step, accessing the app with a two-step activation process. Whether the user accesses this app through their personal account with Facebook or their phone number, the various ways allow the user to enter into the ap...

Registering for Bumble reveals a comfortable, self-evident, and appealing page requiring the simple choice of either registering with Facebook or entering your phone number. Afterwards, a pop-up prompting the choice of opting in or out to notifications is offered and the decision the user makes affords the amount they will be engaged and reminded to use the application. The more the user is interacting with the application, the better the revenue for the company. The question is why do users make the choice to use the app Bumble ? Natalia Lusinski addressed this question, where she utilized LendEDU, a comparative statistics application, to assess what socio-technical affordances guide dating app users to choose Bumble over Tinder. The findings revealed that Tinder’s use was associated with hook-ups and Bumble was more closely associated with dating (Lusinski, 2018). This was found to be true in the Vice article written by Sarah Krichel where she interviewed users of both Bumble a...

There is no doubt that there is a certain element of allure and ease that dating apps provide as they do not require you to leave the comfort of your own home. However, there are some safety implications to consider as the application affords behaviours one may not entirely understand (Murphy, 2017). The application presents a boundary flux where users do not know what is real, seemingly real and completely virtual because users self-brand and present themselves on Bumble with a combination of a few pictures and sentences . This anxiety of the boundary flux is important to pay attention to because the application affords the ability to catfish or not accurately depict/describe oneself, potentially lending to fall victim to a crime. The socio-technical affordance of beginning to use Bumble means that users have to share their locations in order to start matching with others. In addition, in Dating Dangerously: Risks Lurking within Mobile Dating Apps , Alyssa Murphy suggests that dat...

Through the countless interactions individuals have on the app Bumble, it becomes evident, through the affordance of attaching other personal accounts and the familiarity of the interface of the app, that the application does allow a user to make judgement on a stranger. By Bumble having the same swipe options as Tinder, profiles that are replicating the scrolling feature on Instagram, and using the well-known three face interfaces to display content, the application demonstrates similarities to well used and well known applications. Through the ability to link one’s Spotify, Instagram, and Facebook account, Bumble demonstrates the affordance of giving people the opportunity to share and connect based on interests. Thus, when discussing socio-technical affordances, the ability Bumble presents to learn about other individuals demonstrates the affordance as how a person can make judgement about a stranger through the design of the app. Through Suchman’s analysis, it is evident as to ho...

Being part of “the Beehive” means the users of Bumble are part of a network of individuals who are looking to make a connection. Bumble demonstrates different dating behaviour than Tinder, by affording an individual the ability to develop a meaningful relationship rather than just a casual one. Through understanding what the application presents, it is evident as to how women who use Bumble are in it for the long haul, and men take the app more seriously because the women have the power to create an interaction (Siron, 2017). By acknowledging the ability of the app, the affordance that supports this ability is the 24-hour window Bumble provides in order to further for connection and potentially have it lead to a interaction. The applications afford the user the ability to connect with people they are potentially interested in without looking desperate. This affordance is created through the design of the application interface and providing the feature of a 24-hour time limit to furth...

When Whitney Wolfe founded Bumble, she did so with the goal in mind of creating a social dating application that empowered women and allowed female users to feel comfortable when using the app. It is for this reason that Bumble remains so unique amongst other social dating applications as it is female users who are responsible for messaging their matches first. Subsequently, only having 24 hours to do until the match expires and is gone forever relieves any sense of desperateness on the woman’s behalf for messaging first. These affordances for women and idea to empower them that are responsible for the business relationship between Bumble and the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) this past spring, with a partnership that will see the Clippers advertise Bumble and their logo on the shoulder of their jerseys for the next three seasons with the deal being worth $20 million (Soshnick, 2018). It is purposeful planning that led Bumble to partner with an NBA ...

While Bumble is a free-to-download app, users have the ability to pay for monthly subscriptions to the app where they receive extended features that non paying users do not have access to. Paid subscribers have access to three distinct features from the app; Beeline, Rematch, and Busy Bee (Tepper, 2016). With Beeline, a user’s homepage of profiles is purposely filled with other users who have already swiped right on them, thus streamlining the process of finding matches. The Rematch feature allows users to “renew” the 24 hour window of a match where communication was not made within the first 24 hours, thus giving users another opportunity to make conversation. The final paid feature, Busy Bee, affords users the ability to tack on another 24 hours to all matches in hopes of a conversation being started within the updated time limit. Interestingly enough, the latter of the features mentioned was first only available to male users, however its use is now available to men and women. W...

Bumble is recognized by the face of Whitney Wolfe Herd as the founder but there are other key investors that have helped this female led dating app to flourish. The most predominant one, or rather in terms of numbers, is one that owns 80% of the company (Willams, 2016). This large portion is from the powerful and successful Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev. Andreev is best known for his own accumulated empire with the creation of Badoo. Badoo, which is based out of London, England, holds the similar premise of what Bumble stands by and promotes the intentions of a dating focused app. Andreev invested into Bumble as a start-up company. As this partnership was strategically founded as Badoo would become Bumble’s mentor, exploring the challenges and obstacles of dating apps and how his experience would be exemplified as an example of the promotional tactics by encouraging Bumble to become a leader of its own. Bumble during their initial stages of its creation acknowledged the extremely...

One of the ways in which Bumble presents a particular set of cultural habits, practices, and expectations is in how it constructs notions of gender and sexuality. It does this in three main ways. First, Bumble reverses traditional gender roles. Although it is common in heterosexual dating for men to make the first move, Bumble requires that women send the first message. This is designed to create a space that empowers women and makes online dating safer for them (Segel, 2017). Further, breaking down these traditional roles has created more success in relationships. According to a recent study, women who send the first message are 2.5 times more likely to get a response (Cooper, 2015). Through this role reversal, Bumble is working to change the cultural practices around dating. Second, as a result of this women’s empowerment, Bumble is heteronormative. The entire differentiation of the app is pointless to non-hetero relationship seekers. In other words, in homosexual relationships...

Two cultural practices, habits, and expectations worth discussing other than the ones discussed in Bumble and Gender are as follows. First is the cultural shift back to dating. Compared to Tinder or Grindr which are more hook up apps, 85 percent of Bumble users say they are looking for marriage or a relationship (Vitto, 2018). Users are aware of this culture and this creates an environment in which dating is the cultural expectation. Second is the cultural practice of presenting the best version of yourself. This practice is prevalent on many social media sites, however, it is even more prevalent on dating apps as you are essentially marketing yourself. Meikle (2016) explains, “the user simultaneously tries to present themselves in the way they think will be most attractive, while trying at the same time to invoke a very specific imagined and desired audience” (p. 11). This relates to the notion of self-presentation which is basically everything people do to manage impressions. Katr...