Personal Relationships and Intimacy in the Age of Social Media

• Main Author: Miguel, Cristina (Author, http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut)
• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Palgrave Pivot, 2018.
• Edition: 1st ed. 2018.
• Subjects: Social media.; Culture.; Technology.; Communication.; Social Media.; Culture and Technology.; Media and Communication.
• Physical Description: XI, 133 p. online resource.
• ISBN: 9783030020620
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-02062-0

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.