Digital romance: the sources of online love in the Muslim world. (April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sotoudeh, Ramina; Friedland, Roger; Afary, Janet
• Is Part Of: Media, culture, and society. Volume 39:Number 3(2017:Apr.)
• Page Start: 429
• Page End: 439
• Publication Date: 2017-04
• Subjects: courtship -- gender -- Middle East -- Muslim -- public spaces -- romance -- the Internet; Mass media and culture -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Wireless communication systems -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1177/0163443717691226
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0163-4437

Abstract

Social media creates new virtual public spaces where young women and men living in socially conservative non-Western societies can communicate in order to meet and engage in forbidden intimacies. In this essay, using survey data on thousands of Facebook users from Muslim-majority countries, we look at the relationship between romance in public physical spaces and cyberspaces. To what extent do Facebook users make use of the Internet to pursue romance? And what are the attributes of individuals who use it in this way?