Study of the online love & its types in cyberspace

Abstract

This study is devoted to a typology of online love in cyberspace in the shadow of social characteristics of users. Ideas of Sternberg, Lee, Bawman, Giddens and Ben Zeev about Love are theoretical base of the research. Statistical population contains all citizens of Kashan city in 2020, out of which 384 persons were selected by the purposive sampling method. Findings showed that different types of online love have been formed in cyberspace, although the most widespread type of online love that was seen among respondents is the type of “fun and entertainment” (Ludus), followed by pragmatic and matchmaking loves respectively. At the same time, the main types of online love differ according to the characteristics of users such as: age, marital status, level of education, friendship duration and type of occupation. Interestingly, the share of infidelity love is seen only among 4% of the total online relationships. Moreover, there is a relationship between the types of online love with the attitudes toward the Internet and with the Internet environments.