Cyberintimacy: A Scoping Review of Technology-Mediated Romance in the Digital Age

Abstract

With a swipe, click, or delete, people are now able to seek and sustain romance in unprecedented ways. The emerging research shows that cyberintimacy, or the phenomenon of technology-mediated communication between partners and potential romantic interests, significantly impacts the way we form, maintain, and even extinguish romantic relationships. Hence, this scoping review aims to (a) delineate how our use of technology-mediated communication is associated with specific outcomes (e.g., satisfaction and quality) throughout the romantic relationship lifecycle, and (b) identify emerging themes in the research. Adhering to Arksey and O'Mayley's six-step framework methodology, we performed a systematic database search, literature screening, and qualitative synthesis of the findings. Seventy-two studies were selected from a pool of 4,062 articles derived from a systematic search of six academic databases. The findings show that cyberintimacy has a profound impact on outcomes in three crucial stages of the relationship lifecycle-from the way people find and field partners online through the process of initiation; to the means by which partners use technology to perform relationship maintenance; and finally, the ways in which people cope with the process of dissolution by using technology to reclaim a sense of agency.