Grassman, Rickard, and Case, Peter (2009) Virtual intimacy: desire and ideology in virtual social networks. In: Panteli, Niki, (ed.) Virtual Social Networks: mediated, massive and multiplayer sites. Palgrave MacMillan, London, UK, pp. 175-193.

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Abstract

[Extract] There are few social phenomena in contemporary Western society whose magnitude can match the viral spread of virtual social networks (VSNs). Every minute of the day hundreds of new Myspace, Flickr, and Facebook accounts are set up throughout the world and users ready themselves to interact with the many millions already in operation. What characterizes the current tendencies of our consumerist society are not so much the industrial goods in the marketplace, nor the excess beyond use-values engendered by branding but the commodification of culture as such. In the network economy intangible ideas and images are being bought and sold rather than any physical embodiment of what they represent. Indeed, the embodied commodity seems at best secondary if not downright superfluous (Rifkin, 2001). At the same time, we hear loud voices from the academy and beyond requesting a radical rethinking of identities, social formations, and businesses as they move from physical structures to virtual rhizomic networks (Boltanski and Chaiapello, 2005; Flieger, 2005; Hayles, 1999).

Item ID:	27514
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-0-230-22928-0
Keywords:	virtual social networks; intimacy; emotion; ideology
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2013 05:03
FoR Codes:	15 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 1503 Business and Management > 150311 Organisational Behaviour @ 100%
SEO Codes:	95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9504 Religion and Ethics > 950402 Business Ethics @ 50% 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970115 Expanding Knowledge in Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services @ 50%
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