Communication Research

Phenomenology of Users' Emotions in Cyberspace (Case study: Youth of Qom)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Seyyed Alimohammad Razavi 1
Masoud Kianpour 2
Ehsan Aghababaei 2

1 Sociology, Isfahan University

2 Assistant prof. in Sociology, Isfahan University

https://doi.org/10.22082/cr.2017.67715.1395
Abstract
Cyberspace by its functions and capabilities, has changed the way human interaction and how to express feelings. Phenomenology has been used in order to understand the process and how it evolves in the experience of users' lives. In this research, data collected through targeted sampling and in-depth interviews with 25 people who spend at least four hours a day in cyberspace. The extracted topics include three pivot themes of "Sense of Presence ", "Coming Out" and "Continuity". Sub-themes of “Sense of Presence” include “Meaning to Life”, “Other's Absence”, “Escape from the Real World”, and the “Emotional Drowning”, and coming out includes “Symbolize”, “Reduced Urgency”, and “Emotional Reductionism”. And also the sub-theme of continuity is the concept of "Emotional Infection". The results show that the emotional framework of the people selected to presence in cyberspace is based on their presence in the real world and their feelings. The social context of the presence of the selected users in city Qom with almost similar characteristics led users to consider the rule of such a situation as a kind of constraint and control, which makes it an incentive to come out their feelings. Finally, by immersing and linking their feelings in cyberspace to the real world, they still feel some kind of being real in the virtual world.

Keywords

Virtual Emotions
Sense of Presence
Phenomenology
Constructivism
continuity
Cyber‌space
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  • Receive Date 17 July 2017
  • Revise Date 01 October 2017
  • Accept Date 12 November 2017

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