Introduction

Abstract

One of the most striking changes in personal life during late modernity is the use of social media for conducting personal relationships. These changes entail a growing significance in the public display of personal connectedness and the importance of the term ‘friendship’ in managing these connections. Digital communication technologies are contributing to new ideas and experiences of intimacy, friendship and identity through new forms of social interaction and new techniques of public display, particularly on social network sites. This book explores the ways people engage with social media to build, maintain and exhibit personal networks. The aim is to provide an understanding of the mediated nature of personal relationships by developing a theory of ‘mediated intimacies’. The dramatic changes in rituals of connection brought about by the explosion in use of social network sites compel us to reconsider the concept of ‘intimacy’ and extend it beyond its former, narrow focus on family life. This book therefore enquires whether digital modes of communication are generating new intimacies and new meanings of ‘friendship’ as features of a networked society. Key debates and research evidence are assessed about emerging ways that people share their lives with each other in a digital environment and the motives for doing so. New opportunities being offered by social media to transform identities and generate new modes of self-presentation, interaction and etiquette are identified.