Online communication has exploded in the past decade with the development of social networking sites like Facebook, as well as social media applications. As more people turn to the online world to connect with others, they must learn how to develop and maintain personal relationships with very little or no in-person interaction. Intimacy and Developing Personal Relationships in the Virtual World sheds light on the various issues that accompany online interactions. The book examines activities that have gone from occurring in reality to taking place in the online world such as cyberbullying, online social networking, and online dating. The publication also highlights the negative effects of spending a lot of time online such as mental health issues, internet addiction, and body image control. This book is a vital resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, clinicians, social workers, medical administrators, academicians, educators, and graduate-level students.

This book examines how intimate relationships are built, negotiated and maintained through social media. The study takes a cross-platform approach, analysing three social media platforms of different genres – Badoo, Couchsurfing and Facebook – and exploring two interactive forces that shape the way people communicate through social media: the platforms’ architecture and policies, and actual practises of use. Combining analysis of the political economy of social media with users’ perspectives of their own practises – as well as exploring the tensions between the two – the book provides a detailed picture of intimacy as a complex structure of continuity and change.

This book explores how digital communication generates new intimacies and meanings of friendship in a networked society, developing a theory of mediated intimacies to explain how social media contributes to dramatic changes in our ideas about personal relationships, through themes of self, youth, families, digital dating and online social capital.

What happens when the human brain, which evolved over eons, collides with twenty-first-century technology? Machines can now push psychological buttons, stimulating and sometimes exploiting the ways people make friends, gossip with neighbors, and grow intimate with lovers. Sex robots present the humanoid face of this technological revolution—yet although it is easy to gawk at their uncanniness, more familiar technologies based in artificial intelligence and virtual reality are insinuating themselves into human interactions. Digital lovers, virtual friends, and algorithmic matchmakers help us manage our feelings in a world of cognitive overload. Will these machines, fueled by masses of user data and powered by algorithms that learn all the time, transform the quality of human life? Artificial Intimacy offers an innovative perspective on the possibilities of the present and near future. The evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks explores the latest research on intimacy and desire to consider the interaction of new technologies and fundamental human behaviors. He details how existing artificial intelligences can already learn and exploit human social needs—and are getting better at what they do. Brooks combines an understanding of core human traits from evolutionary biology with analysis of how cultural, economic, and technological contexts shape the ways people express them. Beyond the technology, he asks what the implications of artificial intimacy will be for how we understand ourselves.

In our fast-paced, technology-driven world, there is a strong sense of untapped potential and unfulfilled promises. People today possess an unprecedented amount of power through their technological gadgets but often remain unaware of how to wield it effectively. This lack of understanding and agency leads to a plethora of societal problems, from passive consumerism to environmental degradation, fostering a sense of helplessness. Considerations of Cyber Behavior and Mass Technology in Modern Society offer a comprehensive solution to this pressing issue. It is a scholarly beacon, guiding academic scholars and critical thinkers toward a profound reassessment of our relationship with technology and society. By delving into the intricate web of topics such as active citizenship, global information production, and the coexistence of consumer technology and freedom, our book presents an opportunity to explore the root causes of our modern-day challenges.

This book challenges assumptions about the motivations that drive women from relatively poor, developing countries to use intermarriage dating sites to find partners from relatively wealthy, developed countries. It is generally assumed that economic deprivation or economic opportunities are the main factors, but this book instead focuses on the work of women’s imagination in online cross-cultural relationships, including the role of desire, love and intimacy. The experiences of Thai women are used to explore how they initiate, develop and maintain love and intimacy with Western men across distance and time. The book shows that, in the absence of opportunities to search and meet partners from geographically distant parts of the world, the technology of the internet offers new ways of searching for and managing relationships and has significant consequences for local experiences and expectations of love and partnering. The book will be of interest to scholars and students with an interest in family and intimate life, gender and sexualities, Asian and Thai studies, globalization and nationalism, culture and media, sociology and anthropology.

Adolescents and young adults are the main users of social media. This has sparked interest among researchers regarding the effects of social media on normative development. There exists a need for an edited collection that will provide readers with both breadth and depth on the impacts of social media on normative development and social media as an amplifier of positive and negative behaviors. The Psychology and Dynamics Behind Social Media Interactions is an essential reference book that focuses on current social media research and provides insight into the benefits and detriments of social media through the lens of psychological theories. It enhances the understanding of current research regarding the antecedents to social media use and problematic use, effects of use for identity formation, mental and physical health, and relationships (friendships and romantic and family relationships) in addition to implications for education and support groups. Intended to aid in collaborative research opportunities, this book is ideal for clinicians, educators, researchers, councilors, psychologists, and social workers.