Internet and Society - Social Theory in the Information Age

loneliness, community, and so on, because technology is embedded into social systems and doesn’t have linear effects on society. Steven G. Jones (1995) argues that computer-mediated communication (CMC) doesn’t have clear-cut effects on social relations; it would be likely “that social relations emerging from CMC are between the two poles of production (of new reality) and reproduction (of existing reality)” (Jones 1995, 14). How technology shapes society depends on the conditions users face in society and their personal histories and experiences within society. Technology enables a space of possible forms of cognition and interaction; there is a nonlinear and complex relationship between technological possibilities and social systems. Certain applications or patterns of usage can result in very different effects and behaviors depending on how the social systems that embed technology are shaped.

Hence, what we can say and what the abovementioned studies show is that cyberspace is both a tool for the reinforcement and shrinking of sociability; it has an antagonistic character in the sense that, depending on the users’ psychological and social context and capacities of online communication, it can enforce or diminish social relationships and feelings of alienation and isolation.

Sherry Turkle (1997) has demonstrated the nonlinear and contradictory effects of the Internet in a study of MUD players who experienced a lack of social contact and had serious psychological problems that were caused in childhood and adolescence. One user acted out his problems in cyberspace, whereas the other worked them through. The first couldn’t improve his situation; the second could (Turkle 1997, 200). One user had deficits in early relationships that didn’t allow him to identify with other players on the MUD who had qualities he wished to emulate, whereas another one had, besides his problems, a solid relationship with his mother that allowed him to constructively identify with others and the personae one creates online (Turkle 1997, 204sq.).

When we speak of virtual social relationships, we mean interaction processes in which the human beings are not physically copresent in one place and their communication is spatially disembedded. Virtual relationships can mean making new contacts online or maintaining offline relationships online. Frequently, offline relationships also turn into online relationships due to the globalization of life in late-modern society. And online relationships turn into offline relationships when people feel a desire to engage in face-to-face communication. The borders between offline and online social relationships are flexible; in a mediated society,most relationships are hybrid in character, take place both face-to-face and mediated by communication technologies.

One phenomenon that shows that the Internet has a potential for mediating the establishment of new social relationships is cyberlove. Aaron Ben-Ze’ev (2004, 4) defines cyberlove as “a romantic relationship consisting mainly of computer-mediated communication. Despite the fact that the partner is physically remote and is to a certain extent anonymous, in one important aspect this relationship is similar to an offline romantic relationship—the emotion of love is experienced as fully and as intensely as in an offline relationship”. Nicola Dšring (2002, 333) defines online love as a relationship that involves passion (shared arousal when articulating sexual fantasies), intimacy (support in times of personal problems), and commitment (regular contact) and is carried out via the asynchronous or synchronous exchange of digital text, tone, or image messages. It should be added to both definitions that in many cases cyberlove is not purely online but either involves regular offline contact and online contact during times of physical separation (e.g., in long-distance relationships) or is sooner or later supplemented by other forms of interaction (such as telephone or offline meetings).

Ben-Ze’ev argues that “cyberlove is characterized by detached attachment (detattachment)—physical distance with emotional closeness” (Ben-Ze’ev 2004, 56). In online love, at least the first contact is made online or communication in existing relationships is carried out online in order to bridge spatial distance. Ben-Ze’ev (2004, 129) also mentions, 252