Harmony in Connection: The Transformation of Online Dating between South Korea and European Spaces

Abstract

This article examines how online dating is discussed in public Reddit conversations that refer to South Korea and to European spaces. The study is qualitative and exploratory. It uses thematic analysis of selected comments from three Reddit threads concerned with Korean dating norms, dating experiences in South Korea, and perceptions of dating in European contexts. The interpretation draws mainly on Erving Goffman’s notion of impression management and Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of liquid love. Hofstede, Giddens, and recent studies on technology-mediated intimacy are used only as supporting references, not as fixed explanatory models.The analysis shows that users do not describe online dating only as a technical way of meeting partners. They present it as a social situation in which attraction, trust, authenticity, cultural difference, and commitment have to be read and negotiated. In the comments about South Korea, dating applications are often connected with ambivalence, suspicion, respectability, and the need to confirm intentions through face-to-face meetings. The comments about Europe are less unified. They refer to country, city, language, gender, social capital, and local interactional codes. The article therefore argues that dating platforms create a shared digital format for encounter, but they do not remove cultural difference. Instead, they make cultural expectations visible in new and sometimes contradictory ways.