Impact of Online Dating, Cyber Stalking, Cybersex, and Pornography on Mental Health

Online behavior varies according to the purpose and situations and many get involved in intimate relations, like in online dating, which have an impact on the person and his mental health. The chapter focused on the impact of online dating, cyber stalking, cybersex, and pornography on mental health. Though many studied the online dating among adolescents and adults, that of old age group is not yet fully explored especially about their sexual needs. It is worth exploring factors related to risky sexual behaviors among gay and bisexual individuals. Online dating for mentally ill people is an under-researched area. Cyberstalking is an important issue, especially among adolescents and young adults, and cybersex and cyber pornography threatens the safety and mental health in addition to the problems of addiction and child trafficking, and it is linked with high sexual risk behaviors and sex crimes. It is necessary to develop tailored psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions by taking into account the complexity and heterogeneity of the problems.

Empowering Technology Use to Promote Virtual Violence Prevention in Higher Education Context

This chapter aims to explore the pattern to use technology as an attempt to promote virtual violence prevention. A literature review from referred journals and books was conducted. The findings reveal that technology use, in particular an effort to solve the emerging issues of violence promotes the solution with an innovative approach designed in HE. With technology use in attempting violence prevention insights, an innovative way to strengthen technology use wisely with underlying the compassionate skills to promote the preventive action of violent forms is needed. Attempts to promote virtual violence prevention in higher education should be combined with empowering technology use to focus comprehensively on encouraging diverse learners with personal and social awareness in digital interaction. This chapter is expected to contribute in dealing with exploring the systematic approach in nurturing the self-awareness and social concern in digital interaction to be potentially applied in HE.

Cybersex

Cybersex is often used as a collective term for all sorts of sexually related entertainment, information, and personal contact offers available in computer networks respective “in cyberspace.” It is also understood to be a computer-mediated interpersonal interaction in which the participants are sexually motivated, meaning they are seeking sexual arousal and satisfaction. Types are virtual-reality-based cybersex, video-based cybersex, and text-based cybersex. From a technical perspective, two sub-forms of text-based cybersex are differentiated: tinysex and erotic chat. This chapter focuses on various forms of cybersex from commercialization to self-exhibitionism and voyeurism has been explained in terms of commercial and personal cybersex aided by MUD. The chapter concludes with an evaluative view that despite being considered advantageous in a recreative and imaginative alternative for sexual satisfaction, cybersex increases problems an individual goes through along with the family, friends, and other relationships simultaneously elevating infidelity component in stable relationships.

Facebook Depression or Facebook Contentment

Within the literature, Facebook has received much attention in order to understand the potential positive and negative effects associated with using the social networking site. The current chapter provides a discussion of the empirical support for the differential outcomes associated with actively posting and chatting on Facebook vs. passively browsing Facebook, as well as the underlying mechanisms for the effects. Specifically, the current chapter will discuss two perspectives related to the differential effects of active and passive Facebook use: Facebook contentment (a wellbeing enhancing effect) and Facebook depression (a wellbeing diminishing effect). The authors also discuss the extension of the results to other social media platforms and provide suggestions for future research.

Psychological Benefits and Detrimental Effects of Online Social Networking

With the growing prevalence of wireless communication technologies, social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. have become an important venues for interpersonal communication. This chapter provides a detailed overview of the current literature on online social networking with respect to its beneficial and detrimental effects on psychological wellbeing. In particular, it provides empirical evidence for the associations of SNS use with depression, self-esteem, loneliness, subjective wellbeing, social anxiety, attachment, personality traits, and addiction. Furthermore, it identifies the characteristics of individuals who are more prone to social networking, and presents possible mediators and moderators playing a role in the relationship between social networking and mental health. The chapter overall provides a comprehensive guideline to parents, researchers, educators, healthcare, and communication professionals to the issue of online social networking from a psychological perspective.

Romantic Relationships, Online Dating, and Mental Health Issues

This chapter attempts to present the overview of mental health issues associated with online dating and online romantic relationships with relevant research background. It briefly cautions about the possible risks involved in the world of online dating platforms and later delves into mental health concerns that can emerge out of experiences while selecting a potential partner online, developing a romantic relationship, and being involved in a romantic relationship online. It also discusses safety measures that need to be taken before and while being active on such online dating sites. The chapter draws attention to the specific role of mental health professionals that is needed while dealing with victims of online scams and abuse.

Internet Addiction and Online Gaming

Internet addiction has gradually turned a medium of gaming and other leisure activities shifting from its original intention to fasten the communication and help in the researches. The excessive usage of internet and nature of its usage has been found to be similar with psycho-addictive substance addiction with similar neurobiological basis. Inclusion of gambling disorder into DSM 5 further strengthens the emerging concept of behavioral addiction. Various worldwide researches also support the upsurge of such problem. The clinical presentation and management options are mostly based on the behavioral principles learned from the substance abuse problems. However, large-scale randomized trails and epidemiological studies are definitely needed to understand this twenty-first century problem.

Public Relations and Advertising in the Context of E-Sports

E-sports within the gaming industry characterize an economic sector that is engaged in the developing, marketing, and sale of video games. They represent many opportunities for advertising and public relations, which are very important to increase the visibility of e-sports. The use of both has proved far more effective, because it allowed a rapid increase in their popularity. The aim of this chapter is to compare the use of public relations and advertising in e-sports and to determine their appropriateness. So, the relationship between public relations, advertising, and e-sports is developed and researched for the first time here. The authors used qualitative comparative analysis between public relations and advertising in the context of e-sports based on Natus Vincere, one of the most important Ukrainian organizations in the gaming industry. The rise of the gaming industry and recent success of e-sports demonstrate the profitable economic potentials of gaming spectatorship.

The Effect of Social Networks on Relationships Outside the Network

This chapter examines the impact of three different aspects of romantic discourse on social networks: romance, identity, and privacy. Qualitative research focused on the influence of the social networks on the opinions and interpersonal behavior of 11 single academics, aged 30-45 years old, men and women who used Facebook as a means for meeting potential romantic partners. The research employed semi-structured in-depth interviews to elicit qualitative data. Results indicate that an intimate, romantic setting cannot exist on the social network. Most users enhanced their identity in order to appear more attractive online. Most of the interviewees clearly felt that they needed to control the exposure of their personal details, and there was a clear indication that privacy does not exist online: it seems to be impossible to limit exposure of the published contents to specific selected audiences. Online romantic relationships are a metonymy for rapidly changing values and social norms in a dynamic global reality.

Offending, Victimization, Forensic Investigation, and Prevention of Cyberstalking

The term cyberstalking has been used to describe a variety of behaviors that involve repeated threats and/or harassment by the use of electronic mail or other computer-based communication that would make a reasonable person afraid or concerned for their safety. It is growing fast and creating problems, especially psychologically. This chapter mainly focused on its definition, typologies, characteristics of victims and offenders, forensic investigation, and its prevention. There is not much agreement on the definition of cyberstalking as it appeared recently due to technological advancement. Many of the researches were done on university students and the prevalence of cyberstalking among general population and special groups are not much known. But researches repeatedly confirm it as a growing issue. Technical advancements and thorough knowledge on technical details among researchers from different backgrounds poses a big problem to its complete understanding and prevention. Future research needs to focus on all these aspects.