Detalii

Scris de ARS

Categorie: Rezumate Sociologie Românescă

Publicat: 18 Noiembrie 2014

Accesări: 5216

Sociologie Românească (Romanian Sociology), Vol. XII, no. 3/2014, pp. 6-25.

The virtual environment: dangerous or not? Perceptions and representations of the online experiences among children and adolescents

Ionela-Maria Răcătău*

*Universitatea "Babeş-Bolyai" Cluj-Napoca, Facultatea de Sociologie şi Asistenţă socială, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. E-mail: Această adresă de email este protejată contra spambots. Trebuie să activați JavaScript pentru a o vedea..

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Abstract: The Internet and new media are now part of some broad changes that have occurred lately related to how individuals engage in knowledge assumption and production, interaction and information seeking. While digital media are gaining more visibility and attention, both because their associated benefits and inherent dangers, a generation of youngsters is growing up in an era dominated by technological advances that might produce experiences of different kinds in their developmental processes. Although the higher use of the Internet has been accompanied by numerous hopes related to the positive outcomes it might stand for, feelings of fear and panic have also come into play when referring to the child-virtual environment alchemy. This is particularly true in the case of adults’ and public policy representatives’ perceptions of young people as inexperienced users who might easily become targets of the online dangers. Based on three focus-group discussions and using a child-centered approach, this paper presents the perspectives of 24 school teens aged 9-16 who make use of the Internet at least once a week, and explores how they actually embed this into their daily lives, and how they understand and manage risks by themselves. Comparing the answers of three samples of pupils using a focus-group approach, this analysis allowed capturing various interpretations and perceptions related to the online dangers that might occur while exploring the virtual space, by positioning young people at the center of discussions.

Keywords: online risks; online environment; identity formation; parental mediation.

Cuvinte-cheie: riscuri online; mediul online; construcţie identitară; mediere parentală.

Detalii

Scris de ARS

Categorie: Rezumate Sociologie Românescă

Publicat: 18 Noiembrie 2014

Accesări: 7903

Sociologie Românească (Romanian Sociology), Vol. XII, no. 3/2014, pp. 38-51.

Dezvăluirea sinelui în mediul virtual. O analiză de conţinut a profilului de Facebook al tinerilor din România

Self-disclosure in the Virtual Environment. A Content Analysis of the Facebook Profile of Romanian Young People

Corina Moruţan*

*Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie "Iuliu Haţieganu", Cluj-Napoca, Romania. E-mail: Această adresă de email este protejată contra spambots. Trebuie să activați JavaScript pentru a o vedea..

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Abstract: In the past few years, social scientists were talking more and more of an uncontrolled exposure of young people in the virtual environment. The fast development of social networking sites and of instant messaging services had radically changed the way we interact, communicate and socialize. If before you needed time to get to know someone better, to get close to someone, to make new friends, to meet other people who share your interests and beliefs, now everything seems to be just one click away. An environment where there are no socio-cultural and spatial-temporal barriers, like the virtual environment, is an environment that encourages disinhibition and self-disclosure in social relationships. Therefore, we could say that the Internet is offering us an ideal environment for fast self-disclosure. In this context, the present paper proposes to explore the theme of privacy in the virtual environment, its purpose being to identify the type of personal information which young people easily disclose online. Therefore, the present study presents a content analysis of 106 Facebook profiles, based upon a classification scheme for the information provided online. In the end, the study demonstrates that the focus of social researchers should be on the content of the information and not on the amount of information disclosed online. The study offers an overview of what young people are willing to reveal in the virtual environment and represents a first step in the research of this complex phenomenon and its social implications.

Keywords: self-disclosure; Facebook; privacy; information; social interactions.

Cuvinte-cheie: dezvăluirea sinelui; Facebook; intimitate; informaţii; interacţiuni sociale.

Detalii

Scris de ARS

Categorie: Rezumate Sociologie Românescă

Publicat: 18 Noiembrie 2014

Accesări: 6109

Sociologie Românească (Romanian Sociology), Vol. XII, no. 3/2014, pp. 26-37.

Pe cine "alegem" online? Criterii ale alegerii partenerului de cuplu în spaţiul virtual

Whom Do We “Choose” Online? Partner Selection Criteria in Cyberspace

Raluca Buhaş*

*Universitatea din Oradea, Facultatea de Ştiinţe Socio-Umane, Oradea, Romania. E-mail: Această adresă de email este protejată contra spambots. Trebuie să activați JavaScript pentru a o vedea..

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Abstract: Although skeptics do not completely accept cyberspace as a modern but natural frame for establishing and maintaining diverse relationships, in the last few years the online environment has become a common and useful social context for those who have embraced the digital reality in their everyday life. If we rely on web sites to search information and data, pay our bills on the Internet, go for an online shopping session, why shouldn`t we search our soul-mate online? The fact that more and more individuals choose to access the Internet in order to find “that special person”, assigns the online environment as a popular way to interconnect with others. Being a relatively new subject of scientific interest on the Romanian sociological stage, the present investigation has an explorative and descriptive specific. The sociological investigation addressed in the present paper was conducted by applying an online questionnaire to individuals who form a couple with partners they have met in cyberspace. We explore and discuss the socio-demographic and cultural criteria that are standing on the basis of partner selection process in cyberspace. In the end, a synthetized model regarding these socio-demographic determinants is generated. Social homogamy, spatial proximity and physical attractiveness are outlined as the most important criteria in the online process of partner selection.

Keywords: cyberspace; social determinants; multicriterial homogamy; couple relationship.

Cuvinte-cheie: mediu online; determinanţi sociali; homogamie multicriterială; relaţie de cuplu.

Detalii

Scris de ARS

Categorie: Rezumate Sociologie Românescă

Publicat: 18 Noiembrie 2014

Accesări: 5823

Sociologie Românească (Romanian Sociology), Vol. XII, no. 3/2014, pp. 52-61.

Beyond “Google-Search”. Students’ uses and gratifications of the internet within learning activities

Ileana Rotaru*

*University of Reşiţa, Traian Vuia street, no.1–4, room C32, Reșița,Caraș-Severin, 320085, Romania. E-mail: Această adresă de email este protejată contra spambots. Trebuie să activați JavaScript pentru a o vedea.; Această adresă de email este protejată contra spambots. Trebuie să activați JavaScript pentru a o vedea..

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Abstract: The paper aims to present instances of political communication during electoral processes carried out with new media tools. The high rate of Internet penetration and the spreading of social networks trigge-red the response on the part of political candidates, interested to reach their publics wherever possible. In  addition, the development of e-democracy, e-governance and e-politics naturally produces effects in electoral processes. The 2012 parliamentary elections in Romania have as distinctive features the breakdown of constituencies into smaller units and the uninominal vote instead of the previously employed party lists. These features placed the burden of communication tasks on individual candidates, who had to resort to at least one web based communication channel during the campaign. The article is structured in five sections, as follows: the first section is dedicated to presenting the context and tools of the study. The second section views the digital communication as the new frontier to conquer for political communicators. The third is dedicated to Romanian politicians and their Internet presence. The fourth section, which is the largest, places the 2012 parliamentary elections in Timis County under the microscope and highlights the choices of communication tools preferred by the candidates coming from the two political alliances that dominated the elections, the Social Liberal Union (USL) and the Right Romania Alliance (ARD). Finally, the concluding sections discusses further research to be carried in understanding how digital technologies shape the pillar of political communication in the years to come.

Keywords: online communication; electoral campaign; social media; interactivity.

Cuvinte-cheie: comunicare online; campanii electorale; social media; interactivitate.