Affordances of Intimacy: A Comparative Study of Platform Design and Relationship Practices among Chinese Young Adults on Soul and Momo

Abstract

: Drawing on platform affordance theory, this study compares Soul and Momo to examine how stranger-socializing platforms shape young adults’ intimate relationships through interface design, matching algorithms, and interaction rules. Based on semi-structured interviews with 25 young adults who had used both platforms and three-stage coding, it analyzes the links among technological design, interaction scripts, and relationship forms. The findings show that Momo, through geographical proximity, visual display, and instant connection, constructs an efficiency-oriented filtering script that makes intimacy momentary, shallow, and highly substitutable. By contrast, Soul, through de-visualization, interest-based matching, and narrative expression, constructs a meaning-oriented performative script in which relationships depend more on narrative prelude, sustained investment, and spiritual expectation. Young users move between platforms according to emotional needs, adjusting interaction rhythm, self-presentation, and relationship expectations to produce differentiated forms of the “platformed self.” Yet these choices remain shaped by technological rules and commercial logic. Overall, platform affordances, interaction scripts, and relationship forms form a chain of effects that produces a paradox of platformized intimacy: expanded choice coexisting with emotional fatigue and constrained subjectivity. This study highlights the co-construction of technology and emotion and suggests that platform design should give greater attention to user autonomy, emotional well-being, and a healthy relational ecology.