Continuing assessments in online dating: Enabling relational development between potential romantic partners in WeChat conversations

Abstract

Potential romantic partners often employ specific communicative strategies in computer-mediated communication based on their anticipation of future interactions. This conversation analytic study examines the practice of assessments used in WeChat conversations between potential romantic partners. We found that people recurrently mobilize the action of assessment to maintain or terminate their relationships. Especially, people tend to provide more assessments after an initial assessment, which we term ‘continuing assessment’. We show that continuing assessments are sequentially organized in conversational context between co-participants and are essential for relational developments. When potential partners aim to maintain or advance their relationships, continuing assessments are used to prevent a structurally integrated conversation from falling into closure. In contrast, continuing assessments are applied to put an end to the dialogue and to manage face work. Our study furthers the understanding of the communicative strategies of online dating.

Relationship initiation and formation in post-match Tinder chat conversations

“…The little work in this field, to which we hope to contribute with our research, has been produced in the context of social media messaging apps or speed dating encounters. Pan and Gan (2022), for example, demonstrated how potential romantic partners in WeChat recurrently mobilize assessments to maintain or terminate their relationships. Korobov (2011) looked at how mate-preferences or relationship histories (Stokoe, 2010) were elicited in speed dating, and how participants assessed the practice of dating and used these assessments as a topic to construct common ground (Turowetz and Hollander, 2012).…”

"Fish Farming": The Link Between Pre-romantic Relationship Behavior and Social Media Use

“…In a study on WeChat, researchers found that people use continuous evaluation strategies for online dating. Faced with a potential romantic partner, people will evaluate whether the conversation between them meets their expectations, and then further choose to advance or terminate their relationship [8]. Romantic relationship partners tend to use social media to showcase their relationships.…”

Book review: Camilla Vásquez, Research Methods for Digital Discourse Analysis

“…The emergence of digital media and the proliferation of online content has given rise to a plethora of investigations on digital discourse (e.g. Pan and Gan, 2022; Zappavigna, 2022). Studies on the methodological implications of this strand of research, however, remain scarce.…”