Al-Dawood, A., Abokhodair, N., El Mimouni, H., & Yarosh, S. (2017, June). ” Against Marrying a Stranger” Marital Matchmaking Technologies in Saudi Arabia. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (pp. 1013-1024). https://doi.org/10.1145/3064663.3064683

In the Western world, websites and programs that connect and match people for romantic relationships are prevalent. However, few previous studies examined the cultural factors that influence the adoption of similar technologies in religiously conservative non-Western nations.

In their study, the authors looked at the cultural and socio-technical factors that influence how matchmaking technologies are perceived and used in Saudi Arabia. They presented the results of interviews with 18 Saudi natives (nine men and nine women) from various demographics and backgrounds. The authors reported qualitative insights into the primary themes that the participants highlighted in their interviews. These descriptions represented how the corresponding cultural context of Saudi Arabia was linked to typical approaches to matchmaking, the current role of technology, and worries about matchmaking technologies. The authors connected these characteristics to specific implications for developing marital matchmaking technology that would be suitable for Saudi Arabian society and culture.