Open access
INFORMATION SOCIETY, NETWORKED INDIVIDUALISM AND INTIMACY PRACTICES
Agnieszka RYCHŁOWSKA-NIESPOREK1
Publication language: English
Journal article
Transformations No. 4 (119) 2023, Publication date: 29 December 2023
Keywords: information society, networked individualism, electronic lifestyle, in-timacy practices, communication technologies.
Abstract The description of the changes that intimacy undergoes today must take into ac-count the micro-sociological analysis of the mechanisms of creating interpersonal relationships in various areas of social life. In the information society, the Internet and communication technologies enable one to create individually and to a large extent autonomously their own identity and lifestyle, which increasingly takes the form of an e-lifestyle in various areas of life. The process of individualization based on the development of Internet and communication technologies (ICTs) leads to the spread of networked individualism. The indicated changes are also reflected in the transformation of the theory and practice of intimacy. The Internet and communication technologies influence the creation of new virtual intimacies and the transformation of practices of intimacy that exist off-line. This is visible both in the development of a new culture of dating and searching for a life partner, as well as in the functioning of transnational families and networked families.
University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland
ORCID: 0000-0002-1812-3485
E-mail: agnieszka.rychlowska-niesporek@us.edu.pl