Intimacy in the Age of Social Media

The development of digital technologies fosters specific forms of socialization, such as those afforded by social media platforms. Personal relationships in these platforms are dominated by dynamics that include trust, reputation and visibility. As a result, real identities are increasingly represented online in mainstream social media (e.g., Facebook), thus, relocating pre-established relationships (family, friends, work colleagues) into the social media environment. However, other social media platforms allow meeting new people online, where issues around authenticity, social stigma, and safety concerns arise. Therefore, there is a lot to investigate about new types of social interactions generated through social media, in order to better comprehend intimacy practices in contemporary society. In particular, this study focuses on (mediated) intimacy practices among adults (25-49) through three different platforms (namely Badoo, CouchSurfing and Facebook) to analyze how users create and maintain intimate relationships through social media. The project aims to bring together a critical analysis of the politics of social media with users’ perspectives by employing a multi-method research design, which combines interviews, participant observation, and the analysis of platforms architecture and user profiles. The main aims of the thesis are to explore the characteristics of intimacy practices on social media and to question if intimacy online exists in spite of the publicity afforded in these platforms. For doing so, this research examines the extent participants expose their intimacy through social media, as well as the strategies that they use to manage their privacy online. The research gathers user’s perspectives of what constitutes intimate information (visual and textual) and how they negotiate its publication on social media. It explores the relationship between the architecture and politics of social media platforms and the emergent intimacy practices that take place within them. This study also investigates whether participants consider personal relationships originated via social media are shallower than relationships created in other environments, safety, authenticity and social stigma concerns, as well as the extent patriarchal gender roles are reproduced online.