Author(s)

Tianyun Chen ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

Corresponding Author

Tianyun Chen

ABSTRACT

The digital lifestyle of the Z generation has transformed modern people's romantic relationships and the ways they practice romance. More and more intimate relationships have merely developed into "dating" and "situation ship" expectations; young people no longer view love and commitment as a responsibility or an important part of life, and they are increasingly cautious about long-term, serious romantic relationships. Therefore, some flexible, phased, and socially interactive forms of social interaction are particularly prominent among urban youth. In a series of case interviews conducted with young people from different nationalities, cultural backgrounds, and sexual orientations, a common theme emerged: Long-term love is generally considered increasingly difficult to maintain, even exhausting, and for many young people, this matter has become insignificant - including a heterosexual female living and studying in Tokyo, a homosexual Chinese person, and male participants from different sexual orientations and cultural backgrounds such as Ghana and Turkey. Among these respondents, Yangyang proposed that this "relationship without commitment" is "a stage of life, not a necessity", and another respondent, San San, believed that "dating" and "situation ship" is a "screening process". However, both of them reached similar conclusions: serious romantic relationships are no longer regarded as the inevitable result or necessary product of an intimate relationship.

KEYWORDS

De-Romanticization; Mediated Intimacy; Emotional Capitalism; Platform Capitalism; Dating Apps; Online Persona Construction; Emotional Public

CITE THIS PAPER

Tianyun Chen, Love without Falling in Love: Mediated Intimate Relationships in the Digital Age. Media and Communication Research (2025) Vol. 6: 15-19. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/mediacr.2025.060503.

REFERENCES

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