Impression management through communication in online dating

People use online dating systems to form and create impressions of potential romantic partners. While there is a wealth of research on the use of profile pages for impression management in online dating systems, there is little work on how other forms of communication in these systems are used for impression management. This paper reports preliminary results from a qualitative study with users of a popular online dating system. Early findings from 24 in-depth interviews indicate that primary frustrations with online dating stem from inadequate feedback about conveyed impressions and perceived limitations in forming impressions of others. We discuss the implications of these findings for improving the design of online dating systems.