CS 371A Social Media and Social Life

  Application of Meikle’s Theory of Social Media             Meikle’s theory of social media has four elements to it that are represented by Coffee Meets Bagel. The four elements are the socio-technical affordances, the business model and corporate practices, the organization, and the cultural practices of Coffee Meets Bagel. Beginning with the socio-technical affordances, Meikle states that all social media relies on a specific set of these to be identified as a form of social media. For Coffee Meets Bagel, their socio-technical affordances come from their platforms reliance on users to use their app in its intended way to generate the intended outcome. The users must use the app to like and chat with potential matches before ultimately going through with plans to meet them in real life. The second part of the theory revolves around the platforms business model and corporate practices. The business model promotes itself as d...

Beginning with the background of the inner working of Coffee Meets Bagel, their workshop primarily runs using Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a platform that provides cloud computing services and API’s to individuals or companies that require them to run their application. It acts as the foundation of Coffee Meets Bagel by providing them with the tools required for their software to run. The Coffee Meets Bagel workshop also occasionally uses the Google Cloud Platform for its cloud computing and API related requirements, but AWS is used the majority of the time. As for the mobile software that is required for their mobile-only platform to run, it uses Swift and Objective C to run on Apple’s iOS, and Java to run on Android OS.  As for the User Interface Arrangement, the application incorporates a relaxing purple on white colour scheme, with the main focus of the interface being on the pictures of the user's potential matches. There are three central buttons near the...

  Interaction and communication on Coffee Meets Bagel is very unique, and in comparison to other dating platforms, it gives each user an opportunity to express themselves and their interests in a number of categories, all in which are important for the success of a good relationship in the eyes of CMB. Each user is recommended to post around five pictures of themselves, and identify over a dozen of categories including location, height, ethnicity, religion, job title, and other information about themselves, their interest and what their plans for the future. Although it might seem like some of the categories are a bit personal, they do not necessarily need to all be answered, it simply helps CMB match people with the same views. The only private category is gender, although you do disclaim it, on the app when signing up, for CMB it is considered as private information to ensure no one feels excluded. Couldry and Hepp’s theory of ‘communication as construction’ helps explain communi...

       The culture portrayed in Coffee Meets Bagel is one that acknowledges online dating as a community. CMB also ensures to remind their users that they are not alone and that CMB is always there for support. They do this by repeatedly letting users know that CMB employees too have had their own struggles with online dating, leading up to the creation of CMB. The supportive atmosphere that they portray is not only seen in the language they use when assisting users to sign up, but in their Blog section that supports users with all topics regarding dating, specifically online dating. These blogs are written by a variety of people; from CMB employees to field professionals, and ordinary users who have a story to tell. The blog sections are divided into various subcategories, some are based on locations, testimonies, logistics of the app, and LGBTQ+ dating. To give some examples, in the locations subcategories, CMB asks local users as well as CMB employees to share dat...

       Governance is enabled through standard Terms of Service and informally by encouraging users to behave in ways that align with the ideal forms of user Coffee Meets Bagel is targeted at. The platform through which the app is delivered acts as a governance mechanism, including app store terms or the legal status of the app's activity. When accessing Coffee Meets Bagel from the app store, you must agree to the rights and terms of the app. This means you may not run a copy of the app for your non-commercial purpose, and you may not copy the app. Coffee Meets Bagel has the right to update their agreement at any time, and they will do so by posting the revised agreement on the site or App Store. In terms of the Actor-Network Theory (A.N.T), the concept differentiates between intermediaries and mediators, either human or non-human. Intermediaries pass meaning along unchanged throughout a network of relations, while mediators are transformative – they alter the meaning...

              An app's governance involves how the app provider manages and regulates user activity to sustain their operating model and fulfill their vision (Herman, 2021). Governance is reflected in Coffee Meets Bagel's rules and guidelines, which place regulations on the types of users allowed on the app and their kind of activities. When first using the app, there are several things Coffee Meets Bagel wants to put out in the open. One must be 18 to use the service, create an account for their actual, truthful self, and understand that Coffee Meets Bagel does not guarantee anything about their services, nor do they conduct background checks or identify the identity of their users. Governance expands from simply managing user activity to implementing norms and values. By signing up for Coffee Meets Bagel, you agree not to post inappropriate content, information about a third party, or advertise any product or service. In a...

  Coffee Meets Bagel operates using a freemium business model for their revenue stream. In the freemium business model, users pay nothing to download and use the app and are offered optional in-app purchases for premium features, additional content, or digital goods. By utilizing a freemium business model, The Coffee Meets Bagel cost of a basic membership is free, however, Revenue generation involves a variety of in-app purchases. An example of an in-app purchase that contributes to the revenue stream of coffee meets bagel is through digital currencies. Additionally, they utilize a paid premium subscription to add to their revenue stream. Members that buy into their premium membership gain access to certain features and services by paying a monthly sum. To date, Coffee Meets Bagel has raised approximately $31 million in private equity funding across multiple rounds of series A and Series B funding from venture capital firms. Startup companies like CMB receive Series A Funding when ...

  Coffee Meets Bagel is an online / internet dating application that first launched in May of 2011 in Boston Massachusetts; however, its headquarters is now located in San Francisco California. The mobile app is currently led by two of its founders, Arum Kang and Dawoon Kang and they are the two co-CEOs that run the company. Coffee Meets Bagel employs a unique business, one that advocates that their respective value propositions are an alternative to other popular dating apps, and that their service offerings are what differentiate themselves from their competitors such as Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge. As a result, the coffee meet bagel business model is aimed at presenting its users with a more meaningful version of a dating app for people who are tired of meaningless connections. In January of 2015, the company was just a small Startup business with very little funding. As a result, the sisters made a bid for investment in an episode of the reality television show Shark Tank. The ...

  To start on the app it first must be downloaded, the app is available on all major app stores including apple and Google play. When you first enter the app it will ask you if you have a profile on the app or not. If you have a profile already you can access your profile and account by simply logging in. If you did not have an account on the app previously, you can set up an account through Facebook, email, or apple ID. From there you input personal information such as name, date of birth, and identifying gender. The app will then ask your dating preferences such as the ideal gender you would like to be matched with, if you are looking to date casually or more seriously, or if you are unsure. This is to help the algorithm match you with people looking for similar experiences as you. Finally, it takes you to your profile where you can add up to six photos, and answer various prompts. This makes your profile more interesting to other people on the app and helps the algorithm narrow ...

  The front stage of the app has multiple features and pages.The first being the “featured” section. This section features the algorithm's top ten picks for you, you can decide to match them or to reject them. The next feature is the “Likes you” section. In this section you can see people who have liked you, however this is a paid feature of the app which is made available through ‘beans’ or paid subscription. Then, there is “Discover” section where you can see other singles in your area that the algorithm has not matched you with, but are still available to like. The last section on the app is the chat rooms section, this is where all the messages from matches can be found, again chat rooms are only open for seven days so you meet that person. The last page feature on the app is the profile, the profile is where you can create your profile and edit your profile as well by uploading photos and answering prompts. This profile aspect of the app is what helps the algorithms decide on ...

  Coffee meets Bagel is a dating app that claims to revolutionize the dating experience. Unlike Tinder, Bumble, or Hinge it eliminates the swipe-model (CMB, 2021). Instead, the app picks the best suited people for you to match with based on its AI algorithm once a day at noon. The way the AI algorithm works is it favours the quality of matches over the quantity of matches a person receives, it does this by examining a person’s profile and finding similarities on others.. From the matches a chat room then opens up for a limited time of seven days, this is to motivate people to meet in real life. This concept on a dating app is very unique as it rejects the ideas of Couldry and Hepp’s Media Manifold (Herman, 2021). Instead of people just pursuing a relationship online and that being viewed as normal, it wants people to create connections in reality and pursue relationships based in the real world and not a heavily altered social media platform. Due to this it challenges the social sh...

  We were assigned the task to relate one of the three articulations addressed in class to the viral texts "Martin Luther's 95  T heses" and "Women Yelling at the Cat Meme" for this week's blog post. For my post I will be using the first articulation which entails  how a message is distributed, who contributed to its creation and dissemination, what format it is presented in, and who is on the receiving end.    In the New Yor k   article  the author  claims that  Luther “ nailed his 95 theses to a church door in Wittenberg, condemning the Roman Catholic Church’s sale of  indulgences”  (Mohn, 2016 ). The  Standage article  claims  that  Luther   disapproved of  the whole idea of selling indulgences becaus e it would be the pious defrauding of the faithful .  Luther's writings were translated into a variety of languages such as Italian, German.  Copies  were  circulated in  manusc...

Keesha     This past week, the class explored the concept of media ecologies and how different media assemblages and ecologies are constituted by several sets of articulations. I have chosen to explain further the third articulation, which entails how media artifacts and messages are produced and spread through society and manifest in Spatio-temporal dynamics by using the exams of the viral women yelling at the cat meme and Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. Firstly, in discovering the origin and production of the woman yelling at the cat meme, the meme initially was derived from two separate pictures. The first picture was a snapshot of two cast members of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills arguing at a dinner table. In contrast, the second picture of the cat originated in 2018 from a post on Tumblr in which the user was simply sharing a picture of a white cat with an expressive facial expression; a lot of users found this post to humour it gained over 50,300 likes. The combined ve...