Grindr's Grasping Grin Disenchanting ourselves

Abstract

Grindr alienates. At Grindr users are nudged to treat each other as commodities instead of historical living beings that move towards a future. The capitalistic and hierarchical present matters most at Grindr. In response to this attack on humanity, clearly observed at Grindr, I will by Marxist theory investigate in this thesis how the architecture of Grindr nudges users to alienate other users and themselves. In the first part, I will investigate how the architecture of Grindr, which rests on the simultaneous use of categories and photographs, alienates users by the process of commodification, as described by Karl Marx. It will be argued that the non-dialectical consideration of phenomena, which is stimulated by Grindr’s static categories and photographs, is likely to result in a metaphysical awareness wherein practical faith is the rule and the privileged god. The second part will continue the investigation of alienation by scrutinizing how the non-dialectical use of signs functions as precursor for commodification and subsequently alienation. By a re-application of Valentin Nikolaevič Vološinov’s dialectical model of the sign, I will illustrate how signs as ‘ethnicity’ and ‘tribes’ are able to proliferate past ideological choices in a new context as at Grindr. It will be argued that non-dialectical use of signs makes us vulnerable to the capitalistic and hierarchical world. A process that is further strengthened by the fact that human beings perceive themselves first by the signs of the other. However, this does not imply that human beings are bound to subject themselves toward commodifying ideals, they can achieve an awareness that desires the end of alienation by investigating dialectically why a sign does not correspond to their experience. Finally, I will shortly reflect on how human beings can reclaim their social activity and their being. In accordance with the insights of Audre Lorde, I will argue to stop looking away and aim for a world where human beings do not have to be different.