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Background: Internet gaming has gained widespread popularity in China, yet the classification of problematic gaming subtypes based on personality traits remains limited. This study aimed to employ latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify distinct groups of online gamers and compare key variables across these groups. Methods: An online survey was conducted within 5593 internet gaming users, including a demographic questionnaire, queries on internet gaming usage, the Video Gaming Dependency Scale, and the Chinese Big Five Inventory-brief version. LPA was applied to identify distinct user groups, followed by an examination of associations between profile membership and auxiliary variables. Results: LPA identified three gamer categories for problematic gaming: "high-risk" (64.78%), "medium-risk" (3.22%), and "low-risk" (32%). High-risk gamers allocated more time and financial resources to gaming for escapism and leisure purposes. The medium-risk group sought enjoyable experiences, exhibiting traits that were intermediate between the high- and low-risk groups. High-risk gamers demonstrated elevated levels of neuroticism, accompanied by lower scores in other Big Five personality traits. In contrast, medium-risk gamers scored low across all Big Five dimensions, while low-risk gamers achieved higher scores in all traits except neuroticism. Notably, the low-risk group reported forming the fewest new online friendships, despite sharing similar social motivations with the other groups. Conclusion: Traits such as low neuroticism and high conscientiousness serve as protective factors against gaming addiction, while being unmarried or an only child provides additional safeguards. Conversely, increased time and financial investment in gaming activities are associated with a heightened risk of addiction. These findings are crucial for identifying high-risk gamers and informing the development of targeted interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractDespite the recognition that technology is ubiquitous and critical in modern interpersonal relationships, little is known about the meaning individuals assign to their close online relationships. Furthermore, there persists a negative bias toward online relationships. This study, using a sociocultural approach, sought to address this gap by qualitatively investing adults’ lived experiences and processes of meaning-making in online relationships. Specifically, we sought to identify common dialogical tensions in participants’ discourses as the moments when meaning is created and negotiated in dialogue with the medium and cultural context. Thirteen semi-structured interviews were carried out in-depth with participants who had diverse experiences of close online relationships, including romantic relationships, dating, familial relationships, and friendships. We assumed that the distinctiveness of this research design would highlight the interconnectedness between different types of relationships. Additionally, we expected more pronounced levels of tensions among close relationships enabled by technology. Through the analysis of dialogical discursive tensions, we identified four main tensions in the discourses: opportunities/constraints, authenticity/staginess, safety/risk, and proximity/distance. The latter emerged as a fundamental tension, intertwining with other tensions, and prompting reflections on the realness, depth, and validity of online relationships. The analysis unveiled that individuals’ experiences with online relationships are shaped by the actual use of the medium, societal representation of technology, and cultural discourses. Often, these cultural discourses and representations contrast with individuals’ lived experiences, contributing to the tensions. Navigating these factors poses a significant challenge for participants as they negotiate the complexities of online relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High levels of online activity have been linked with lower critical engagement and cognitive ability as well as lapses in attention and memory. This study examines whether individual differences in cognitive styles and abilities relating to the theoretical framework of distributed cognition predict social media behaviour. In this online study, 784 MTurk participants (55% male) completed measures of social media use, online friendships, need for cognition, dissociative tendencies, and vocabulary. They also answered questions about online news-related information sharing (with and without reading the article). Multiple regression and relative weights analysis show that higher dissociative tendencies and lower verbal ability predict social media use, online friendships and information sharing behaviour. Dissociation was the most important predictor, particularly for sharing news-related information without first reading it, with moderate to large effects. Perceptions of information accuracy and source trustworthiness were identified as key factors in driving information sharing behaviour. Our research has important implications for today's technological society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facebook, the largest social networking site in the world, has overcome the structural barriers that historically constrain individuals to reach out to different others. Through the platform, people from all walks of life and virtually any location can develop diverse friendships online. However, friendships on Facebook have been as segregated as friendships in real life. This research sought to understand why the leading social networking site intended to "bring the world closer together" retains segregated friendship. In doing so, I employed a series of agent-based simulations based on the Framework for Intergroup Relations and Multiple Affiliations Networks (FIRMAN). As demonstrated, Facebook has primarily enhanced users' capacity to maintain a larger number of friendships (tie capacity), but it has done little to empower users' ability to accept diversity and befriend different others (tie outreachability). Facebook must focus on the latter should they truly wish to contribute to the development of a more inclusive society. While in this study I focus on ethnically segregated friendship on Facebook, I argue that the same explanation might also hold for racially and ideologically segregated friendships on other bidirectional social networking sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated how adolescents' loneliness relates to school connectedness, classmate support, teacher support, and offline and online communication with friends. We also examined the association between loneliness, physical health, and sleep. Data came from the Scottish Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC). The total sample was 2983 adolescents (F = 1479 [49.6%]) aged 14–17 years (M = 15.66, SD = 0.39) from 117 secondary schools in Scotland. Results showed that (1) higher teacher support, classmate support, and offline contact with friends predicted lower levels of loneliness, (2) online friendship engagement predicted higher levels of loneliness, and (3) poor health and sleep were positively associated with loneliness. The study offers new findings, highlighting the role played by classmates/peers and teachers in reducing loneliness. Supporting previous research, we also found associations between loneliness, poor sleep, and worse physical health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impact of online identity orientation and online friendship homophily on online socializing, online information search and ethnic guests' hospitality experiences. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses structural equation modeling to test a conceptual model developed after reviewing hospitality literature. Data is collected from a sample of 514 Turkish-Dutch ethnic guests living in the Netherlands using a self-administered questionnaire. Findings: The results show that online identity orientations aligned with minority and majority cultures impact online friendship homophily and online socializing, which subsequently impact online information search and hospitality experiences of ethnic guests. Practical implications: On the whole, ethnic communities have considerable spending power. The findings point to heritage and mainstream cultural socialization accounting for travel and hospitality experiences within an ethnic minority group. The findings supply relevant information for hospitality sectors on services to endorse or promote to guests from ethnic communities. Originality/value: The study examines the simultaneous effects of online identity orientations and online friendship homophily on online socialization and hospitality experiences of ethnic guests. It highlights the role of culture in explaining the use of social networking sites and its potential impact on hospitality-related behaviors and experiences of ethnic guest consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cumhuriyet International Journal of Education is the property of Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Friendship is a universal and proper phenomenon of the human condition that is born of the free offer of oneself to launch itself into the mystery of the other. Through it, the men become capable of finding a way to their humanization. This article portrays the role of friendship, especially in the digital age and the ways that Christians must go through to reach their identity in this relevant mean of communication, that overcomes the distance to allow the encounter. However, this technology never determines a society, it is what makes its choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals may have a range of opinions on controversial topics. However, the ease of making friendships in online social networks tends to create groups of like-minded individuals, who propagate messages that reinforce existing opinions and ignore messages expressing opposite opinions. This creates a situation where there is a decrease in the diversity of messages to which users are exposed (diversity of exposure). This means that users do not easily get the chance to be exposed to messages containing alternative viewpoints; it is even more unlikely that they forward such messages to their friends. Increasing the chance that such messages are propagated implies that an individuals' susceptibility to persuasion is increased, something that may ultimately increase the diversity of messages to which users are exposed. This article formulates a novel problem which aims to identify a small set of users for whom increasing susceptibility to persuasion maximizes the diversity of exposure of all users in the network.We study the properties of this problem and develop a method to find a solution with an approximation guarantee. For this, we first prove that the problem is neither submodular nor supermodular and then we develop submodular bounds for it. These bounds are used in the Sandwich framework to propose a method which approximates the solution using reverse sampling. The proposed method is validated using four real-world datasets. The obtained results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method compared to baseline approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide basic information about the analysis of the correlation between online friendship network and internet game disorder among university students. Methods: Study subjects were 77 university students. For analysis of online friendship among them, social network analysis was performed and the analysis of degree, closeness, and betweenness centrality was measured. Assessment of internet game disorder was done using the Korean version of Internet Gaming Disorder Scale. Results: As per the results, the positive correlation showed between in‐closeness centrality and internet gaming disorder (IGD) and the negative correlation showed between out‐closeness centrality and internet gaming disorder. Conclusions: Online friendship is considered to contribute to the changes of internet game disorder level. Thus, in the relationship between online friendship and internet game disorder, closeness centrality should be considered, and causal relation analysis should be performed in further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social network analysis was used to verify the moderating effect between the exerciser schema and the health promotion lifestyle of adolescents on the "online exercise friendship" network structure (including internet scale, density, hierarchy and constraint). The results showed that: (D The main effect test showed that adolescent exerciser schema positively influenced exerciser's health promotion lifestyles. The "online exercise friendship" network hierarchy and network constraints negatively influenced the dependent variables, indicating that the network structure was flat, that the "power" and "influence" of small groups were decentered, and the network constraints were low, with many stmcniral holes, which was an excellent prediction for the dependent variables, d) In the interaction effect test of exerciser schema, network density positively affected the dependent variables and network constraint negatively affected the dependent variables. That is, when the level of exerciser schema was the same, a high network density or a low network constraint had a more significant effect on health promotion lifestyles. (3) Network closure represented by network density and network constraint represented by structural holes coexisted and complemented each other, affecting the dependent variable in contradiction and unity. The results of significant network structure moderation effects provide empirical data and a possible theoretical basis for social mobilization strategies for sport and health in online small groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loneliness is a common problem among overseas students. Loneliness can occur due to the low level of the intimacy of friendship. Thus, this study aimed to determine the effect of friendship on the loneliness of respondents. The research used comparative causal type quantitative methods. The study involved 385 respondents who were overseas students at Malang State University class of 2020 and 2021 who started friendships online and continued offline. They were selected using a purposive sampling technique. The study used the University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale Version 3 (UCLA LS) scale, which was adapted into Indonesian by Putri (2019) and modified by researchers, had 14 items with a reliability of 0.884, and the Intimacy of Friendship Scale by Rizal's (2020) and modified by researchers, had 41 items with a reliability of 0.942. Data analysis in this study used simple regression analysis. The results showed that intimacy of friendship contributed 32.7% to loneliness with a negative influence (ρ = 0.000). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adds ammunition to recent arguments for the possibility of online character friendships in the Aristotelian sense. It does so by exploring sustained and deep email correspondence or epalship as a potential venue for the creation, development and maintenance of character friendships, and by drawing an analogy with a historically famous example of penpalship: that forged between Voltaire and Catherine the Great. It is argued that epalships allow for various technological extensions in the cyberworld of today that were not available to Voltaire and Catherine; and that augmented with those extensions, there is even more reason for seeing epalships as potentially making the grade as true character friendships than traditional penpalships. However, despite being potentially categorisable as character friendships, mature epalships are vulnerable to the same problems and pitfalls as other examples of character friendships, and perhaps even more so: pitfalls that were mostly overlooked by Aristotle himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility of online Aristotelian virtue friendships via social network sites continues to be raised by philosophers, but as yet this has not been positioned within the realm of children or adolescents, who are known to be amongst the largest users of social media. Governmental agencies across the globe still struggle to define the boundaries of online usage for children, often depending on school‐based curricula highlighting 'safe‐guarding' online or some form of character education. This, however, often leaves the philosophical thinking behind virtual relationships as incompletely addressed in educational theory, policy and practice, despite there being some very real difficulties for children. Utilising the insights of Aristotle on friendship, I offer a view that may hold potential for a philosophically based policy. I outline three different ways this philosophical literature could have implications for education and indicate the types of policy that each might entail. I will contend that there are three distinct stakeholders here that can be identified as having a significant role to play in what we should do: the schools themselves, educational researchers and policy writers. Finally, I suggest ways in which research, policy and practice might link together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile dating applications (MDAs) are popular relationship-seeking tools among emerging adults. As offline relationship dynamics are increasingly mirrored in the context of mobile dating, MDA users are also known to experience online romantic rejection, including ghosting. The consequences of such online romantic rejection and its underlying mechanisms are still unclear. As such, the present study explored the associations between being ghosted on an MDA and emerging adults' self-esteem, by drawing on the Disillusionment model and the Expectancy Violations Theory. Cross-sectional data were gathered through the dissemination of an online survey during April 2021 in Belgium. The analytical sample consisted of 268 Belgian respondents (Mage = 23.17, female = 68.7%). Hypotheses were tested through multivariate linear regression analyses using Hayes' PROCESS Macro. Results indicated that being ghosted on an MDA was indirectly related to decreased self-esteem, through disillusionment with one's own romantic appeal, if the ghosting was experienced as a highly unexpected, negative and impactful event. Given that ghosting seems to become increasingly prevalent, one can wonder what the cumulative impact of being ghosted on an MDA may be on users' self-esteem if they remain active MDA users for a longer period of time. Hence, future research should examine these associations longitudinally. Moreover, future research is encouraged to explore potential interacting individual differences (e.g., self-perceived dating app success) and specific interpersonal communication dynamics (e.g., frequency of communicating). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perhaps less familiar will be the discussion of contemporary psychology, which Kristjánsson suggests generally avoids normativity and, related to this, has two features that Kristjánsson rejects: instrumentalism (31) and less focus on the characterological aspects of friendship (37). However, Kristjánsson thinks that maximization "is totally alien to Aristotelian virtue ethics, which assumes neither the possibility of maximizing virtue within or across individuals" (105). Now, Kristjánsson immediately admits that the educational I raison d'être i is not explicit in Aristotle (112, 122), and it is revealing that Kristjánsson spends only about a page when discussing the educative I raison d'être i as it applies to I phronimoi i , fully virtuous people (115-6) and suggests that more relevant for the purposes of the chapter are non I phronimoi i (116). [Extracted from the article]

The advent of technological advancements in contemporary society has had a profound impact on our lives by greatly facilitating various aspects of human life from communication to transportation and changing not only the media people utilize in their everyday lives but also their traditions, values, and relationships. Thus, these changes have sparked debate regarding the overall positive or negative implications of these developments as the dynamic nature of all kinds of human relationships in modern times varying from everyday relationships of friendships, partnerships and sexual encounters to kinship and family has increasingly begun to be characterized by transience, fragility, ambivalence and rapid change. These characteristics are attributed to the impact of modern technological advancements, namely the proliferation of social media applications. The purpose of this study is to examine how social media applications shape relationships today with a specific focus on Brian Lobel's Purge (2011) in light of Zygmunt Bauman's ideas of liquid modernity. Since Brian Lobel's Purge (2011) is a play about making the decision to end or maintain friendship through social media applications, it provides us with pertinent examples for scrutinizing the themes of transience, fragility, vulnerability and ambivalence that have become the hallmarks of the modern relationships in the age of liquid modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, the role of user behavior in the formation of politically homogeneous online environments (oftentimes called echo chambers) is not fully understood. Building on selective exposure research, we introduce the notion of selective political friending, that is, the preference for political like-mindedness in social affiliations on social networking sites. In a pre-registered laboratory experiment with users of social networking sites in Germany (N = 199), we find that users preferably build connections with those who share their opinions toward controversial political issues. Political like-mindedness outperforms other friending criteria such as popularity or career-related fit with another user. Political friending is pronounced when individuals' pre-existing opinions are strong. The present study points to the necessity to take the motivational complexity into account when studying phenomena linked to political homogeneity on SNS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study explores the moderating role of loneliness in the relationship between attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. Participants included 1572 adolescents who completed self-report measures of loneliness, attitude toward online relationship formation, and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. As hypothesized, attitude toward online relationship formation was positively related to psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. Results of moderation also demonstrated that lonely adolescents would report more positive attitude toward online relationship formation and higher psychological need satisfaction in online friendships compared to adolescents with nonlonely. Overall, these results extend self-determination theory's contentions regarding the critical role of socialization initiatives to increase the fulfilment of psychological needs for adolescents, regardless of whether the relationship was formed through the Internet or in-person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sugar relationships are described most commonly as negotiated relationships, usually between an older (sugar parent) partner and younger (sugar baby) partner and in which the younger partner is provided monetary or material gifts for their participation in the relationship (e.g., companionship, friendship, consensual sexual behavior). Sugar dating crosses the boundaries of not only what is considered a traditional relationship. Previous scholarship considers the legality of sugar relationships, negotiations in sugar relationships, power dynamics associated with sugar relationships, and if a transactional nature often seen as wedded to sugar dating can be seen as a form of sex work. The current study focused on advice sharing within Tumblr communities of sugar babies, including sugar-dating specific language. Tumblr, a popular blogging website, houses a prolific subculture for sugar dating, wherein blogs provide information/advice to potential or novice sugar babies about how to navigate the sugar experience. Using conventional content analysis, we report nine themes from blog posts of sugar babies. These themes include sugar dating advice, relationship maintenance once a sugar relationship begins, and what to expect in a sugar dating relationship. We discuss how the open and transactional components of sugar dating are not wholly dissimilar from other dyadic relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the wide use of Location-Based Social Networks (LBSNs), predicting user friendship from online social relations and offline trajectory data is of great value to improve the platform service quality and user satisfaction. Existing methods mainly focus on some hand-crafted features or graph embedding models based on the user-location bipartite graph, which cannot precisely capture the latent mobility similarity for the majority of users who have no explicit co-visit behaviors and also fail to balance the tradeoff between social features and mobility features for friendship prediction. In this regard, we propose a dual subgraph-based pairwise graph neural network (DSGNN) for friendship prediction in LBSNs, which extracts a pairwise social subgraph and a trajectory subgraph to model the social proximity and mobility similarity, respectively. Specifically, to overcome the co-visit data sparsity, we design an entropy-based random walk to construct a location graph that captures the high-level correlation between locations. Based on this, we characterize the pairwise mobility similarity from trajectory level instead of location level, which is modeled by a graph neural network (GNN) on a labeled trajectory subgraph composed of the two trajectories of the target user pair. Besides, we also utilize another GNN to extract social proximity based on social subgraph of the target user pair. Finally, we propose a gate layer to adaptively balance the fusion of the social and mobility features for friendship prediction. We conduct extensive experiments on the real-world datasets and demonstrate the superiority of our approach, which outperforms other state-of-the-art methods. In particular, the comparative experiments on the trajectory level mobility similarity further validate the effectiveness of the designed trajectory subgraph-based method, which can extract predictive mobility features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Review of Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Online social technologies, such as email, social networking applications, texting and others, are now used by a majority of individuals in the U.S. (Pew, 2018a). As a result, it is not uncommon to develop friendships with others that are conducted primarily in an online environment. However, we know little about the qualities of online friendships and how they may, or may not, differ from traditional face to face friendships. The present study focused on exploring friendship quality in online and offline domains using two groups: a gamer group and a non-gamer group that used non-gaming applications to connect with others online. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire to gather information about their online and face to face friendships, the McGill Friendship Questionnaire (Mendelsohn & Aboud, 2014) for their closest online and offline friends and measures of happiness, anxiety, and depression. In Study 1, within group comparison found that gamers' online friendships were of significantly higher quality than their offline friendships. For non-gamers, the opposite results were found. A second study was done using a larger, non-college-based sample. Results of Study 2 found that for gamers and non-gamers offline friendships were of higher quality than online friendships, although both types of friendships existed in both groups. There were no differences between groups in general life happiness, anxiety or depression. Suggestions for follow-up research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work was to explore the relevance of adolescent online friendship, self-efficacy assessment, problematic use of internet and demographic data, additionally identify for boys and girls separately, and how these variables predict virtual friendship. Data were collected from 288 adolescents aged 11 to 18 years (M = 13.96), 139 boys (M = 14.22) and 149 girls (M = 13.72). Participants completed questionnaires, which were adapted within this study: The Problematic Internet Use Scale for adolescents PIUS-a (Boubeta et al., 2015), Online Friendship Scale (Helmi, Widhiarso, & Husna, 2017), and Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children SEQ-C (Muris, 2001). Results showed a statistically significant positive correlation between online friendship and problematic use of the internet; also, between online friendship and self-efficacy. We found a statistically significant negative correlation between problematic use of internet and selfefficacy. Girls reported higher levels of online friendship, more problematic use of internet, and lower emotional self-efficacy ratings. Social self-efficacy, problematic use of the internet, gender and age predicted 24% of online friendship ratings. Self-efficacy and time of everyday internet use are not online friendship predictors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of Facebook friendship in the legal profession in Florida. Also cited are the motion by a lawyer to disqualify a judge due to his/her Facebook friendship with another attorney, the ruling by the Florida Supreme Court on the insufficiency of said friendship as grounds for disqualification, and the opinion of the Florida Judicial Ethics Committee on judicial participation on social media.

Low fertility has been a concern in Singapore. While there are studies examining the causes, few studies have used online dating services as a source of data to examine the desire of Singaporeans to have children. Yet, research on mate and date selection using online personals is prolific, arguing that online personals are a valuable source of information for social analysis. Using a data set that was collected in 2007 and in 2015 from a website for Singapore online dating, we examined the factors influencing whether Singaporeans expressed wanting children in their personals. We find that preference for a committed relationship is the strongest predictor for the desire to have children. The age effects are as expected. Women are less likely to express they want children in these personals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent can online social networks predict who is at risk of an infection? Many infections are transmitted through physical encounter between humans, but collecting detailed information about it can be expensive, might invade privacy, or might not even be possible. In this paper, we ask whether online social networks help predict and contain epidemic risk. Using a dataset from a popular online review service which includes over 100 thousand users and spans 4 years of activity, we build a time-varying network that is a proxy of physical encounter between its users (the encounter network) and a static network based on their reported online friendship (the friendship With computer simulations, we compare stochastic infection processes on the two networks, considering infections on the encounter network as the benchmark. First, we show that the friendship network is useful to identify the individuals at risk of infection, despite providing lower accuracy than the ideal case in which the encounters are known. This limited prediction accuracy is not only due to the static nature of the friendship network because a static version of the encounter network provides more accurate prediction of risk than the friendship network. Then, we show that periodical monitoring of the infection spreading on the encounter network allows to correct the infection predicted by a process spreading on the friendly staff ndship network, and achieves high prediction accuracy. Finally, we show that the friendship network contains valuable information to effectively contain epidemic outbreaks even when a limited budget is available for immunization. In particular, a strategy that immunizes random friends of random individuals achieves the same performance as knowing individuals’ encounters at a small additional cost, even if the infection spreads on the encounter network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals differ in the extent to which they believe online communication can contribute to the growth of close relationships – a concept defined as the perceived reality of online interactions. Perceived reality may function as a self-fulfilling prophecy: individuals who have positive attitudes toward online interactions will make behavioral choices that lead to positive outcomes. A sample of 207 undergraduates was assigned to a hypothetical online or face-to-face interaction with a stranger. In the online condition, levels of perceived reality predicted willingness to self-disclose and to provide social support within the interaction, which in turn predicted positive expectations of the interaction's success. This research reinforces the importance of studying users' attitudes as predictors of the outcomes of online interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of young adults are using online dating sites and mobile apps. The “common connections” feature on Tinder displays mutual Facebook friends between users and might serve as an unintentional validation of a user's character. This study investigates condom use differences between partners met via mobile dating apps or in-person; and if the “common connections” feature affects the perceived sexual risk Tinder users have toward partners met online. College students who met a partner online or in-person in the past year were recruited from a large metropolitan university to complete an online survey. Participants answered questions about sexual risk behavior, condom use, Tinder use, and the effect “common connections” could have on sexual risk behaviors. The likelihood of condomless vaginal sex was no different if participants met their partner through an app or in-person. Among a subset of participants who reported using Tinder, having “common connections” with a potential date decreased the likelihood that they would talk to their date about HIV ( p  = 0.004) or STI testing ( p  = 0.001). The “common connections” feature on Tinder might influence sexual decision-making because users are able to evaluate potential dates based on their social network. Our findings suggest that Tinder users may (1) perceive partners with whom they share “common connections” as familiar or “safe,” which may give users a false sense of security about the sexual health risks that a potential date may pose or (2) be hesitant to discuss sexual health matters with partners who are within their sexual network due to fear of potential gossip. Both lines of thought may reduce safer sex behaviors among sex partners who meet on Tinder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of online social networking has increased development of exclusively online friendships. Individuals in online environments are willing to invest considerable time and effort to develop and maintain relationships as they would in other gathering spaces. In some cases, individuals find it preferable to make friends via the internet over more traditional means of relationship formation. The current study examines preference for online friends over face-to-face friends. Initially, we developed a brief, one-dimensional, 11-item questionnaire assessing online friendship preference based on semi-structured interviews. Confirmatory factor analysis showed support for a one-factor model. Internal consistency was established using inter-item correlation, corrected item-total correlation, and Cronbach's a. Subsequently, we examined the psychological determinants and consequences of preference for online friendship formation. Participants who reported higher fear of intimacy and perceived relationship vulnerability reported greater preference for online friends over face-to-face friends. Preference for online friendship was related to increased risk of problematic internet use. The findings suggest that interpersonal fears, combined with attributes of online communication (e.g., reduced social cues and more personal control) motivate some individuals to prefer online intimacies over face-to-face friendships, thereby increasing time spent online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined what communication channels people utilize in initiating and developing friendships with others in online communities, and if such connection is beneficial to individual well-being. A public (forum participation) - bounded private (forum messaging) - private (mobile phone) path of channel transitions was proposed based on social penetration theory. The study context was set in online substance addiction support communities. An online survey with 354 community members confirmed the proposed path. Forum messaging, but not mobile phone communication, contributed to health efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores factors that influence matches of online dating participants' stated preference for particular characteristics in a potential partner and compares these with the characteristics of the online daters actually contacted. The nature of online dating facilitates exploration of the differences between stated preference and actual choice by participants, as online daters willingly provide a range of demographics on their ideal partner. Using data from the Australian dating website RSVP, we analyze 219,013 contact decisions. We conduct a multivariate analysis using the number of matched variables between the participants' stated preference and the characteristics of the individuals contacted. We find that factors such as a person's age, their education level, and a more social personality all increase the number of factors they choose in a potential partner that match their original stated preference. Males (relative to females) appear to match fewer characteristics when contacting potential love interests. Conversely, age interaction effects demonstrate that males in their late 60's are increasingly more selective (than females) regarding who they contact. An understanding of how technology (the Internet) is impacting human mating patterns and the psychology behind the participants informs the wider social science of human behavior in large-scale decision settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the connection of problematic online dating (POD), problematic social media (PSM), and problematic online sexual behaviors (POSB), with body esteem and sexuality. Previous research focused either on the impact of media on body esteem, or the impact of body esteem on sexuality. Yet, online media tends to be sexually self-objectifying, requiring more studies on their impact on body esteem and sexuality. In this study, a sample of 825 participants aged between 18 and 54 years old (M = 25, SD = 9.7), with 80% female participants, completed an online survey assessing POD, PSM, POSB, sex addiction, cognitive distractions during sexual intercourse, body esteem, sexual desire, sexual esteem, sexual depression, and sexual preoccupation. POD, PSM, and POSB were significantly correlated (r = 0.14, r = 0.35, r = 0.18). POD was linked to sexual depression (β = 0.10, p < 0.001), PSM was linked to body esteem (β = − 0.17, p < 0.001) and to cognitive distractions (β = 0.19, p < 0.001), and POSB was linked to sexual esteem (β = 0.14, p < 0.001). The mediation model indicated a significant indirect effect of body esteem and cognitive distractions between PSM and sexual depression (β = 0.15, Z = 4.39, p < 0.001), and for PSM and sexual esteem (β = − 0.13, Z = − 3.78, p < 0.001). This study highlighted the importance of studying outcomes of POD, PSM, and POSB on real-life sexual experiences, and to what extent body esteem and cognitive distractions were implicated. Further research is necessary on the impact of POD on sexual well-being and use of online sexual activities in diverse SM platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the abundance of studies investigating individual differences associated with extradyadic behavior (EB), nearly all have adopted retrospective measures in which the data is likely plagued by recall biases. In addition, few studies have explored individual differences or outcomes associated with EB between those with consenting and nonconsenting primary partners. Thus, the current study investigated the extent to which Ashley Madison users participated in a wide range of EBs, whether age, gender, and sexual identity predicted participation, and the extent to which outcomes were impacted by partner consent. The results from 1460 adults (962 men, 498 women) revealed that users reported engaging in three categories of behaviors: sexual/explicit, technology/online, and emotional/affectionate behaviors and that women and those older in age reported participating in EBs more frequently than men and those younger in age. Finally, 16.9% of the sample had a primary partner that consented to their Ashley Madison use and those with consenting partners reported greater perceived improvement in their primary relationship than did those with nonconsenting partners. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing the multitude of behaviors that Ashley Madison users participate in and whether consent was obtained. Implications for educators and practitioners are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]