What Are you Looking For? The Mental and Social Health Impacts of Gay Dating and Hook-up Apps

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and identify some of the potential social, and mental health impacts of gay dating and hook-up apps. These applications are new, GPS and smartphone based, forms of social media for gay men and other men who have sex with men. The main purpose of this qualitative analysis (grounded theory approach) is to determine what, if any, impacts there are, and to what degree they emerge or are demonstrated in publically available blog postings. The secondary purpose is to examine the findings and host a discussion towards advanced understanding for counsellors and other health practitioners. A final section will include considerations for counsellors based on the findings, and informed by other research