Author(s)

PABLO TOMÁS CASTELLÓ, JESÚS LÓPEZ BAEZA, CARLOS PASTOR GARCIA

Abstract

During the recent years, the use of social media has become a popular way of establishing and maintaining social interaction and relationships. For those networks based on geolocation (LBSN), their link to the urban environment and physical space offer great possibilities in regard to the observation, research and description of such. This paper uses public data from Wapo, a location-based social network utilized by male homosexual users. A new methodology will be proposed, which aims to update Gates’ gay index by focusing on the density of users and the profile pictures. These app usage data will be cross-referenced with objective static data indicators related to demography, and socio-economic data to observe correspondences. Thus, this paper utilizes indicators extracted from Wapo as an alternative and complementary methodology to observe the distribution of creative areas under certain conditions. It is established a theoretical link between inequality and the feeling of comfort regarding the perception of tolerance. This relation is experimented through the content observation of profile pictures within the app and the quantitative proportion of explicit displays of identity. It is observed that density of users remains independent from any socio-economic indicator. However, mathematical discordances found in the tendencies about the number of active users and the proportion of explicit profile pictures finds correspondence with areas known as creative and gay-friendly and potential gentrification.

Keywords

LBSN, social media, dating apps, creative areas