“The Gay Tinder”, Grindr, is a dating app that is full of creepy and suggestive gay men; something that shouldn't be attractive, but somehow is. Acting on sexual desires is a completely normal human activity, but for gay men, these desires can be difficult to fulfill depending on the environment. Grindr makes interaction between gay men easily accessible with its user-friendly interface that displays between 100 and 700 gay men in the user's immediate vicinity. Because the app is tailored to such a specific audience, it reflects the interests of the queer community in order to keep them invested and involved in the app and its community. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayWith sex as an intrinsic motivator, the Grindr platform makes finding a suitable sexual partner both enjoyable and rewarding for those who use it. In this essay, I will show how identity-based affective engagement (Kraut & Resnick, 2011) is experienced within Grindr's user base, making users feel like they truly belong to a community and coexist virtually in an enclave of the online dating world. Second, I will talk about how Grindr exists for needs-based engagements (Kraut & Resnick, 2011). Due to the extreme and inherent sexual desire, Grindr sought an opportunity to speed up the process of relationships (dating, dating, sex life, etc.) and fulfill the sexual desires of gay men. Grindr brings gay men into casual sex, which is one of the main motivations for using the app. These casual sexual encounters keep users coming back to the app. Finally, I will explore how the Grindr platform encourages users to actively contribute to the community. By placing users in small, like-minded groups, Grindr motivates participants to not be intimidated into interacting with each other due to two main overwhelming similarities between all users: homosexuality and location. All things considered, Grindr has capitalized on the sexual spirit of gay men by making the search for a viable sexual partner rewarding, enjoyable, and even community-oriented. Kraut and Resnick (2011) define affective identity commitment as “a feeling of being part of the community and helping it fulfill its mission” (p. 79). Gay men participating in Grindr fulfill the app's mission of sexual freedom and sexual liberation for the gay community. Through every interaction between gay men, Grindr's mission becomes more and more realized. Expanding on identity-based affective commitment, Kraut and Resnick (2011) discuss social identity theory as "how sharing a common social category with others leads people to categorize themselves as legitimate members of a group and to identify with it” (p. 79). Based on the common social category of sexual orientation, gay men use Grindr and the surrounding community to explore their sexual options. Often feeling marginalized, the gay community finds comfort in an online community where they can express themselves, as well as the community's culture and surrounding lexicon. Chatting with other gay men about sexual exploration, interests, fetishes, and other revealing topics is intrinsically rewardingin itself because, naturally, you want to talk to people who are like you. Not only are you part of the larger gay community when you are an active Grindr user, but you are also part of the more niche community of Grindr users. Although there has been a recent positive shift in widely held beliefs, homosexuality often results in questionable looks. Being part of both a broader gay community and a more niche online community reinforces the mission of sexual freedom and sexual liberation that Grindr seeks, hoping to reduce the number of questionable looks brought by the homosexuality. Gay men who choose to be part of the Grindr community, choose to be part of an app that is sexually explicit and explicit in nature, but also find it rewarding to know the similarities between themselves and the gay community in their own neighborhood. Within the app, a user can choose self-identified “tribes” that are a strange mix of body types and interests. For example, one can join the "leather" tribe if they fetishize sadism and masochism, but one can also join the "trans" tribe if they identify as transgender or are interested in transgender people. A user can also choose their "position", such as "top", where they like to penetrate or "bottom" where they prefer to be penetrated. Kraut and Resnick's (2011) sixth assertion regarding identity-based affective engagements reads: “Creating named groups within a larger online community increases members' commitment to sub-groups. groups” (p. 83). In these subgroups, the Grindr app creates an even stronger sense of community. Discovering these small, like-minded communities brings users back for repeat visits where they can further explore their sexual interests without feeling ashamed. Sexual exploration with similar people is an important intrinsic motivator because it satisfies many of the natural human desires. Additionally, exposure to these terms and subgroups sparks curiosity among other users. As stated earlier, sex is a basic human desire that can get quite aggressive. For some, sex might be considered a human need. In the Grindr community, there is a unanimous belief that sex is a desire that must be satisfied. It is with this belief in mind that Grindr's app interface caters to need-based engagements. Kraut and Resnick (2011) define this type of engagement as “attachment to an online community that depends on the net benefits people derive from the community” (p. 105). With Grindr, the main benefit is satisfying sexual desires. If Grindr continually acts as a virtual community where gay men can seek to entertain their sexual side, then the app continually has new and returning users. Kraut and Resnick's (2011) thirty-second design claim regarding needs-based engagements in online communities states that "providing participants with experiences that meet their motivations for participating in the community increases their needs-based engagement." needs towards the community” (p. 107). By allowing users to send each other specific locations, community members can quickly meet up to meet their sexual needs and desires. If a participant has sexual urges and wants immediate satisfaction of those urges, knowing the fast, user-friendly experience of Grindr will motivate that person to find a suitable sexual partner. Knowing that their.