How Young Men Establish Their Same-Sexual Relationships through Digital Contexts, Mutual Understanding and Emerging Networks of Digital Intimacy

Abstract

This paper reviews three divisions as mutual understanding, digital media contexts, and emerging networks of digital intimacies. First, mutual understanding involves with explaining how young men establish similar understanding between each other through interactive communication via Facebook in order to establish their same sexual relationships. Second, Digital media contexts involves with reviewing digital media’s potentials and spaces, on which rural young men create mutual understanding. Third, emerging networks of digital intimacies involves with clarifying how rural young men network themselves for their same sexual relations through Facebook as a safe and convenient space for their intimacies. On this qualitative literature review, key concepts such as mutual understanding, digital contexts and emerging networks of digital intimacy are explored to argue how rural young men create a network of digital intimacy on their same sexual relationships. Mutual understanding as a key public relation concept, is used to understand how young men establish their same sexual relationships through a process of inter-personal communication via Facebook. Digital media’s potentiality through ‘network society’ and ‘participatory culture’ are explored in order to understand how Facebook helps to create mutual understanding. Accordingly, this paper defines mutual understanding based on how young men individually interconnect through Facebook in order to identity “who they are” for their same sexual relationships. This is not similar to how relationships are managed between organisation and its stakeholders in terms of the corporate benefit. In short, this thesis argues how mutual understanding is constructed through young men’s individual understanding on a process of interaction via Facebook. As a result, it is argued how these virtual communities create a network of digital intimacy