Ben LightConnected Lives, Diverse Realities

Research GroupSchool of Health and Society

@doggybb.light@salford.ac.uk

(Not So) Sticky Fingers: Automation, Hookup Apps & the Qualification of the Intimate

An Economy of Qualities (Callon et al 2002)

•A good or service is defined by the qualities attributed to it during qualification trials.

•The result of these trials depends on the good or service and the judgements made by consumers.

•Singularisation involves the alignment of consumer expectations with what is on offer, in terms of how differences affecting choice are both articulated and understood.

•Attachment and detachment involve the capturing of consumers, attaching them by detaching them from rivals, by engaging them in processes of requalification.

•Services providers need to cooperate with a calculating consumer on a regular basis - to keep their products alive as it were.

The Quantified and Qualified Self

•The qualified self refers to the process of the creation of media traces of ourselves; which in turn creates representations of ourselves to be consumed. (Humphreys Forthcoming).

• This data may also include quantified self data which seeks to generate an environment of systemic monitoring where an individuals personal information climate provides real-time performance optimisation suggestions and where the individual becomes a more calculable and administrable object (Swan 2013).

Disconnection as Socioeconomic Lubricant

(Light 2014; Light and Cassidy 2014)

• Disconnection as socioeconomic lubricant • Payment to disconnect• Release valves to maintain presence, datafication, marketing, apparent critical mass

• Geographies of disconnection • disconnecting by not joining a service, leaving it or suspending participation with it for some time

• within a single service in relation to the people, functions or features of a given space

• between between services• spaces of the physical world may also play a part

Affective Economies (Ahmed 2004)

• Emotions as not private, as part of exchange

• Circulating, involving attachment and displacement

• The rippling effect of emotions

…they move sideways (through “sticky” associations between signs, figures, and objects) as well as backward (represssion always leaves its trace in the present - hence “what sticks” is also bound up with the “absent presence” of historicity). (Ahmed 2004: 120)

Speculative Devices (Light 2016)

• Speculative devices, those things that are set in place based on a conjecture of an outcome.

• By device, I mean a thing for affecting a purpose, recognizing that objects contribute to the processes of making events that constitute society (Michael 2012).

• Speculative devices have the capacity (which may not be fulfilled) to generate actions, thought and feelings about the past, present and future.

Qualification Trials

Affective Economies

Qualified and Quantified Self

Disconnection as Socioeconomic

Lubricant

Speculative Devices

€Attachment and Detachment

Desired Digitised Dicks in the 90s?

•Pseudonyms

•“Meateatr” (Shaw 1997)

•Numbers (between 10 and 25—referring to centimeters) and/or abbreviations like TTBM (Très Très Bien Monté - translating into Well Hung) used codes of expressive pseudonyms to denote penis size (Livia 2002)

•Discourse

•“Youve heard of IRC inches? … somebody says eight and you know its probably five.” (Shaw 1997)

•“are you still cruising for cock” (Campbell 2004)

•“6” cut cock”, “8½ inches of cock!” and “nice cock” (Mowlabocus, 2010)

Desired Digitised Dicks in the 00s

•Hookup digital infrastructures

• digitized photography,

• video chat,

• writing of dicks into interfaces (see e.g. Cassidy, 2016; Light, 2007; Mowlabocus, 2010).

• Guides to using hookup apps

• “Mr Right Now wants to see your cock—not a pic of you cuddling Aunty Ethel on Christmas Day. Mr Right might be put off by a cock-only portfolio” (JockBoy26, 2010 17).

You Stole My Dick Pic

•Cast as duplicitous members who pretend to want to meet in order to gain access to dick pics, whether in platform or via requesting additional pics to be sent by other means such as text, WhatsApp, or Snapchat.

• Once pics have been received, the conversation is abruptly ended and the user who has provided them may be blocked.

• Rather than the dick pic being sent in an unsolicited fashion, it is instead taken, undermining the expectations and desires of the dick pic sharer.

Dicks - Feel Free!

• Platform owners and app stores are equally key actors (Harrison 2017, Light, 2014, 2016; Roth, 2015).

• Squirt, for example, operates as a HTML5 site.

“Currently, apps that contain adult material are not allowed in the App Store or Google Play. Squirt does not believe in censorship. We are pro-sex, and we celebrate sexuality. Having to offer Squirt with no nudity in the pictures, or having to police what members put on their profiles for simple profanity or the frank talk about the kinds of sex that we look for is not an experience we want to bring to you.” (Squirt 2016)

Dick Pics - Not In My Backyard! But Maybe In My Alley?

•Apple's (2017) app store guidelines state that developers should not include

“Overtly sexual or pornographic material, defined by Websters Dictionary as explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.”

•The Google Play Developer Policy Centre (2017) states that:

“We dont allow apps that contain or promote sexually explicit content, such as pornography. In general, we dont allow content or services intended to be sexually gratifying.”

•The Apple App Store (2017) also engages in relegation work by stating that:

“If your app includes user-generated content from a web-based service, it may display incidental mature NSFW content, provided that the content is hidden by default and only displayed when the user turns it on via your website.”

Ashley Madison

•Where millions go to find something different, something discreet.

•At the time of the hack the service reported having over 43.5 million members. The opening page of the desktop site now suggests it has over 49.35 million.

•App is free to download, with optional in-app purchases ranging from $19.99 to $249.99.

•In-app purchases give users additional functionality such as messaging, gifts and chat time.

(iTunes download page 2017)

Masking Up

•We respect your need for discretion so we've created some tools to keep your identity a secret.

•Are you sure you dont want a photo? Men are 37 times more likely to contact you if you have a photo.

The Bots of Ashley Madison

•Ashley Madison, bots appear to be used to chat with human users to keep them engaged, and they use fake profiles, created by Ashley Madison employees, as a face for the interaction. The same bot can inhabit many profiles.

• Anna Lee Newitzs analyses of the data dump revealed 70,572 bots, 70,529 configured as female and 43 configured as male.

• It was also reported that male users received 20,269,675 million messages from female bots, and that female users received 1,492 messages from male bots.

• Female bots engaged in chat with men 11,030,920 times and, male bots engaged in chat with women 2,409 times.

• Examining the source code of the site, it was possible to see that bot based encounters could be generated every few minutes creating a overall sense of women looking for men throughout the site (Newitz 2015).

Guiding Bots•Newitz reports via her interrogation of the source codes comments that bots were given descriptions of how to act by programmers that has them sporadically focusing on engaging straight men:

host bot mother creates engagers

• birth has been given! let the engager find itself a man!

• randomizing start time so engagers dont all pop up at the same time

• for every single state that has guest [non paying] males, we want to have a chat engager

(Newitz 2015)

Bot Talkhi,hi,hi,hi (s),hi there,how are you?,hey,Hey,hey there,hey

there,Hey there,u busy?,you there?,any body home?,Hi,Hi,Hi,howsit going?,chat?,how r u?,anybody home?

lol,hello,hello,Hello,hello?,whats up?,so what brings you here?,oh hello,free to chat??

Hmmmm, when I was younger I used to sleep with my friends boyfriends. I guess old habits die hard although I could never sleep with their husbands.

Im sexy, discreet, and always up for kinky chat. Would also meet up in person if we get to know each other and think there

might be a good connection. Does this sound intriguing?

Bot talk – from Newitz (2015)

Turning bots on and off at Ashley Madison (Newitz 2015d)

Not Another Conference Darling…

Ashley Madison seemingly delegates the morality of engaging in an extra-relationship affair to the user, positioning itself as merely an intermediary – see Kylie Jarrett (2008) on the strategic denial of authority of Web 2.0 Web producers.

Trustify•An Ashley Madison user can pay to find out if their data has been released by the hack.

• Anyone else can check up on someone they think may have used the site (despite the fact that Ashley Madison did not have a validation process in place so no links could be made between users and their emails).

“If you suspect that you are being cheated-on by your spouse, or that your partner is on Ashley Madison, then you are not alone. The Ashley Madison data breach includes over 32 million users, and millions of Americans are cheated-on by their significant others on a daily basis. Many of these victims of infidelity cite that the worst part is not knowing if they are being cheated-on. They just want to know the truth. Trustifys Network of Licensed Private Investigators can help you get the truth today.” (Trustify 2016)

Business Model

•12 Million+ members worldwide

•Apple/Android

•ScruffPro

• Access more swipes

• Stealth mode

• 2000 v 150 blocks

• No Banner Adverts

•Scruff Brotique

Travel and Events

The Profile

Location & Selection

Conclusions

•Disconnection as socioeconomic lubricant - psychological and emboddied, not just behavioural

• Geographies of disconnection - not as between sites and practices - but as between thoughts, things and feelings

• Affective economies - banality, desire, duplicity, and reciprocity

• Shaping emotional experience through platform governance but moderated by the strategic denial of authority (see Kylie Jarrett 2008)

• Exercising power by stating the safe limits in order to make money (see Steven Lukes 1974)

ReferencesAhmed, Sara. (2004). Affective Economies. Social Text, 22(2 79), 117-139.Ashley Madison 2016a Ashley Madison Terms and Conditions volume, issue, Accessed: 20 January 2016, https://www.ashleymadison.com/app/public/tandc.p?c=5.Ashley Madison 2016b Ashley Madison Welcome Page volume, issue, Accessed: 20 January 2016, https://www.ashleymadison.com.Ashley Madison 2016c Guaranteed Affair Programe: FAQ volume, issue, Accessed: 25 January 2016, https://www.ashleymadison.com/app/public/guarantee/detailsform.p.Auger, J. 2013. "Speculative design: crafting the speculation." Digital Creativity, volume 24, issue 1, (March) pp. 11-35.Bort, J. 2013 I spent a month on infidelity dating site Ashley Madison and was pleasantly surprise by how nice it was volume, issue, 18 December 2013. Accessed: 29 Jaunary 2016, http://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-to-use-cheating-site-ashley-madison-2013-12.Campbell, J. E. 2004. Getting It On Online: Cyberspace, Gay Male Sexuality and Emboddied Identity. New York, Harrington Parker Press.Cassidy, Elija. (2016). Social networking sites and participatory reluctance: A case study of Gaydar, user resistance and interface rejection. New Media & Society, 18(11), 2613-2628.City News 2013 Woman hurt typing fake profiles for dating site, $20M suit alleges City News volume, issue, 10 November 2013. Accessed: 25 January 2016, http://www.citynews.ca/2013/11/10/woman-hurt-typing-fake-profiles-for-dating-site-20m-suit-alleges/.Cox, J. 2015 Ashley Madison Hackers Speak Out: 'Nobody Was Watching' Motherboard volume, issue, 21 August 2015. Accessed: 21 January 2016, http://motherboard.vice.com/read/ashley-madison-hackers-speak-out-nobody-was-watching.Gillespie, T. 2010. "The politics of ‘platforms’." New Media & Society, volume 12, issue 3, (May) pp. 347-364.Harrison, Katherine. (2017). ‘Relive the passion, find your affair’. Convergence, 1354856517725987.Jarrett, K. 2008 Interactivity is evil! A critical investigation of web 2.0 First Monday 13 volume, issue 3, (March). Accessed: 30 March 2008, http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2140/1947.JockBoy26. (2010). The Big Book of Gaydar Uncut! Brighton: Book Guild Publishing.Kolko, B. E. 2000. "Erasing @Race: Going White in the Inter(face)," Race in Cyberspace. In B. E. Kolko, L. Nakamura and G. B. Rodman (editors). New York, Routledge. pp. 213-232.

ReferencesLight, B. 2007. "Introducing Masculinity Studies to Information Systems Research: the Case of Gaydar." European Journal of Information Systems, volume 16, issue 5, (August) pp. 658-665.Light, B. 2014. Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.Light, Ben, & Cassidy, Elija. (2014). Strategies for the suspension and prevention of disconnection: Rendering disconnection as socioecenomic lubricant with Facebook. New Media and Society, 16(7), 1169-1184.Light, Ben. (2016). Producing sexual cultures and pseudonymous publics with digital networks. In R. A. Lind (Ed.), Race and Gender in Electronic Media: Challenges and Opportunities (pp. 231-246 ). London: Routledge.Light, Ben. (2016). The rise of speculative devices: Hooking up with the bots of Ashley Madison. First Monday, 21(6). Retrieved from https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6426 Date accessed, 30 September 2016.Livia, Anna. (2002). Public and Clandestine: Gay Men's Pseudonyms on the French Minitel. Sexualities, 5(2), 201-217.Michael, M. 2012. "De‐signing the object of sociology: toward an ‘idiotic’methodology." The Sociological Review, volume 60, issue 1, (June) pp. 166-183.Mowlabocus, S. 2010. Gaydar Culture : Gay Men Technology and Embodiment in the Digital Age. Farnham, Ashgate.Newitz, A. 2015a Almost None of the Women in the Ashley Madison Database Ever Used the Site Gizmodo volume, issue, 28 August 2015. Accessed: 14 September 2015, http://gizmodo.com/almost-none-of-the-women-in-the-ashley-madison-database-1725558944.Newitz, A. 2015b Ashley Madison Code Shows More Women, and More Bots Gizmodo volume, issue, 31 August 2015. Accessed: 20 January 2016, http://gizmodo.com/ashley-madison-code-shows-more-women-and-more-bots-1727613924.Newitz, A. 2015c The Fembots of Ashley Madison Gizmodo volume, issue, 27 August 2015. Accessed: 20 January 2016, http://gizmodo.com/the-fembots-of-ashley-madison-1726670394.Newitz, A. 2015d One Chart That Shows How Much Money Ashley Madison Made Using Bots Gizmodo volume, issue, 31 August 2015. Accessed: 25 January 2016, http://gizmodo.com/one-chart-that-shows-how-much-money-ashley-madison-made-1727821132.Roth, Y. 2015. "“No Overly Suggestive Photos of Any Kind”: Content Management and the Policing of Self in Gay Digital Communities." Communication, Culture & Critique, volume 8, issue 3, (February) pp. 414-432.Shaw, D. 1997. "Gay men and computer communication: A discourse of sex and identity in cyberspace," Virtual culture: Identity and communication in cybersociety. In S. Jones (editor). London, SAGE Publications Ltd. pp. 133-146.