Scenarios of use and sexual scripts in the service of one-night stands

Based on a survey of young heterosexual adults and the analysis of the functioning of two dating applications – Tinder and Fruitz –, this article examines the mechanisms that make casual sex via dating applications possible. Drawing on both the sociology of technical devices and the sociology of sexualities, it shows how certain dating applications set up scenarios of use that allow for this sexuality. It also considers the ways in which these scenarios are received and reworked. Taking sexual scripts that give a central place to partially desexualized interactions and seduction, the users of the applications rework the tools proposed by the dating platforms in order to access one-night stands, while giving it meaning that is consistent with their representations.