Banca de DEFESA: MAURICIO CARDOSO BORGES LACERDA MOURA

PERCEPTIONS ON INTIMACY IN RELATIONSHIPS OF YOUNG ADULTS USING DIGITAL SOCIAL NETWORKS

Intimacy; personal relationships; digital environments; social media; mediated interaction.

Intimacy is understood as a multifaceted phenomenon applicable to different experiences of human social interaction. Its main origins derive from continued dynamics established between public and private contexts, while latest transformations of intimacy were caused by growing proliferation of social interactions mediated by sociotechnical artifacts that soon became known as Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), connected around the world through the advent of the Internet. The electronic structure of ICTs allowed for new social and digital environments through the Internet, extending in time and space the possibilities of interaction with other individuals. Traditionally, intimacy was understood in social and academic fields as particular to face-to-face interaction. As social interaction is faced with platforms of digital networks, new sets of practices are established, altering the ways in which intimacy is established. Using Goffman’s (2010) dramaturgical perspective of the self and a model of interpersonal intimacy (Prager, 1995) as main foundations, the aim of this research was to discuss how intimate interactions occur in relationships established in contemporary conditions of sociability that presents itself in networks of digital social media. For this purpose, a qualitative and exploratory research was carried out, in which 10 young adult participants were interviewed. Participants shared perceptions and experiences about relationships, intimacy and their uses of two digital social media apps that are typically understood as applications to establish relationships: Whatsapp and Tinder. A content analysis (Bardin, 2006) was carried based on social and technical particularities of these platforms and on the three main defining characteristics of intimate interaction: (1) Self-disclosure; (2) Positive involvement; and (3) Mutual understanding. The participants' perceptions indicated that among the applications, Whatsapp is the preferred context for establishing and developing intimacy at higher levels, in addition to being a communicational necessity of everyday life. The context of Tinder was identified as the best way to meet new people in a superficial way and disassociated from the development of intimacy, even though it may occur at low levels. The results suggest that intimacy occurs in varying degrees as a propriety of interactions that can happen in the mediated or face-to-
face contexts, in a hybrid way. The socio-technical conditions of Whatsapp indicate active audience regulations for quick and practical access, generating a social expectation for constant availability among individuals, albeit asynchronously. Regarding Tinder, privacy management as a way to access information about the self is decisive to direct an interaction towards conditions closer to intimacy. This directionality of interactions proved to be regulated by the technical aspect of telephone contact, as it leads mainly to the mediated space of Whatsapp. Self-disclosure made possible by mediated contexts of these platforms point out possibilities of intimate interaction on digital social networks as an extension of intimacy in personal relationships.