Saudi Arabian Parents' Perception of Online Marital Matchmaking Technologies

TL;DR

This study explores Saudi Arabian parents' perceptions of online marital matchmaking technologies, highlighting their desire to preserve cultural values while integrating technology into traditional spouse selection processes.

Contribution

It provides qualitative insights into Saudi parents' views on online matchmaking, informing culturally sensitive technology design in a collectivist context.

Findings

Parents want to preserve cultural values

Parents seek to integrate technology with tradition

Concerns about potential harms of online matchmaking

Abstract

Finding a date or a spouse online is usually considered an individualistic endeavor in Western cultures. This presents a challenge for collectivist non-Western cultures such as Saudi Arabia where choosing a spouse is viewed as a union of two families with parents of both spouses being heavily involved. Our work aims to investigate how Saudi Arabian parents view the utilization of technology by their young adults to seek potential spouses online. We report our findings of interviews conducted with 16 Saudi Arabian parents (8 fathers, 6 mothers and 1 couple). We generate qualitative themes that provide insights about how parents wanted to preserve their values, integrate technology into the traditional process and protect their young adults from potential harms. These themes lead to implications for designing suitable marital matchmaking technologies in Saudi Arabia and opportunities for future work.