Paying Attention: Are dating apps selling us short?

It is sometimes said that we now live in the 'attention' economy, where the real product being sold by free or freemium services is us: what we are looking at, watching and engaging with. We call it paying attention as we are giving something of ourselves to our subject. Contrary to popular belief, we are not good multi-taskers, so our attention is necessarily a limited resource. I wanted to look at what our seemingly increasing addiction to screens and online platforms has done to us when engaging in personal relationships.

To help us explore this, I spoke to Dr Martin Graff from the University of South Wales about his work in social psychology, the psychology of relationships, and online interaction.

Dr Graff’s research interests are in online relationships and interactions. Some of his publications include: ‘Effects of internet addiction scores on informational search by undergraduate students’ (2023), 'How can you persuade me online? The impact of goal-driven motivations on attention to online information' (2020) and 'Can time spent on Social Media Affect Thin-Ideal Internalisation, Objectified Body Consciousness and Exercise Motivation in Women? (2019), and ‘Tinder and location based dating’ (2017). He teaches a course at the university on ‘Virtual and parasocial relationships’.

Produced by the Bloomsbury Institute in London.