Dating-app self-presentation is a speculative curation for imagined viewers.

Evidence

Nonetheless, a speculative imagination is ever-present during such fantastical traverses: Tinder users often act like curators who filter images of others (Hogan 2010) while also selecting appropriate representations of themselves on behalf of their imagined viewers and potential partners. In that sense, users’ ongoing valuations of images in the dating app marketplace form part of a dual process of producing and representing value that is at once subjective and economic, for the “scopic evaluation of others” (Illouz 2019, 141). — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 222

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is the curatorial self-representation really ‘speculative’ or just impression management? Worth probing whether the author stretches the trading-floor definition here.
• XREF: The curating-spectating dynamic resembles Goffman’s self-presentation but reframed as market valuation — connects to how financialized subjects manage their own volatility as a portfolio.