The Social Relation Mediated by New Technology: Behavior, Psychology and Society

Dear Colleagues,

The world is constantly changing due to the pervasive use of the world wide web that currently shapes our lives and our society. Nowadays, more than 4.5 billion people access the Internet regularly, which corresponds to about 60% of the global population. At the same time, active users on social network sites number approximately 4.14 billion. The best-known and most widespread SNS, Facebook, counted about 69 million active users worldwide in early 2008, whereas in early 2021 the number had grown to more than 2.7 billion. Moreover, most young people, and not only the young, are constantly connected to the Internet and are ready to look at their smartphones when they receive a notification about their online connections’ recent posts.

Much of the time on SNSs is spent looking at the stream of information updated all day and all night by members of our social networks. Friends, relatives, acquaintances and people we have never met appear with their posts on our Facebook timeline, in our Instagram news feed or in our WhatsApp status updates with their life, travels, friendships, political ideas, parties, new jobs, and romantic relationships.

In most cases, new social media technologies offer unique opportunities to interact with others, i.e., maintaining and improving networks of real friendship, fostering social capital, facilitating support exchange and engaging in peer-to-peer comparisons, with self-presentation and self-confidence related to SNSs as elements contributing to the definition of one’s identity. In other cases, an impressive amount of research shows the potential risks of use and abuse of new social media in educational, workplaces, social context (i.e., addictions, distress, and concern over negative evaluation).

The main aim of this Special Issue is to promote knowledge of the positive and negative aspects of new media in social relations with the porpoise of promoting a social sustainability of human beings on new technologies.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Social network sites interactions;
• Problematic media use;
• Augmented reality;
• Fear of missing out;
• Social comparison;
• Social interaction in workplaces;
• Body dissatisfaction in new technologies;
• Social media relation in educational settings;
• Sexting;
• Cyberbullying;
• Language;
• Entrepreneurship;
• Leadership;
• Online intervention.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Stefano Ruggieri
Dr. Alessia Passanisi
Guest Editors

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