NEWS & TREND
Online Communication and Intimacy
For several years, it has been possible to state that Social Media have definitively become part of the daily and social life of individuals. A phenomenon that initially involved the so-called "digital natives”, so those born and raised in the digital age that with the passage of time, has also begun to affect older generations. In particular, the last two years, coming from the Covid-19 global pandemic, social media have taken the power of online communication to the extreme, exponentially increasing the use of Social Networks and teleconferencing platforms.
More and more often we hear about how dysfunctional Social Media is for social relationships. Just think of the constant use that the youngest ones always make attached to the screen, even when they find themselves in company, and their constant need to show every aspect of their own intimate sphere (from travel, through parties to the domestic routine, in which family members are involved, aware or unaware). What therefore emerges is a constant reduction of the line that separates the private from the public, real life from "cellular life”.
But above all, it is more and more obvious that one aims to share online a life on the verge of perfection by now, a remarkable aesthetic that hides even the darkest aspects of one's existence. Looking also towards the panorama of influencers, it seems almost surreal to think how easy it is to get into someone’s private space (some people share thousands if not millions of one's own home walls with an audience of followers eager to learn more and more details about the lives of these characters.)
Communicating in the Digital Universe
Although, however, online interactions have become more and more part of our daily life, the need for physical and empathic relationships remains, however, primary in people's lives. In this sense, the growing increase in avatars that reflect the creator's shapes and features, such as, for example, in the case of Apple emoticons or apps like Bitmoji, in which it is possible to portray one's avatar in daily actions, constitute a fundamental example of "Interacting" with your friend’s avatars.
If, therefore, it is now difficult to keep one's intimacy private, it is equally true that online communication has become essential in a constantly evolving world that has broken down the boundary between offline life and online life, normalizing the latter as an equal practice of our life "off the screen".