Practices and emotions in online-dating - Alienated relationships?

Affects and emotions are a crucial component of love relationships. However, it is frequently argued, that relationships which derive from online-dating don't have the ability to evoke intense and romantic sentiments between the participants, which leads to the argument, that the internet contributes a lot to social experiences of alienation. Recent empirical studies are questioning this with good reason (Ben Ze’Ev 2004; Döring 2009). Therefore the aim here is to elaborate the ambivalences of online-dating, and to confront with the findings of the research on emotions and affects. Besides theoretical considerations, empirical material is provided through secondary data analysis as well as own observations of the cyberspace. Three assumptions will be presented:

1. The concept of alienation: Alienation is characterized by a peculiar ambivalence, as objects or structures may appear simultaneously as our own or as alienated. Hence, alienation typifies not a relation based on direct power, but one based on indifference (structural- or practical constraints). Alienation doesn’t imply the absence of a reference to the world, but has a rather deficit relation to it (Jaeggi 2005).
2. Authenticity and deception: Online-dating and online- or offline relationships deriving from it don’t lead automatically to alienation. However, the vulnerability of such virtual relations to deception and fraud is comparatively greater than in conventional offline-relationships. Nonetheless, research has observed the approximation of online- to offline relationships, which opens up an empirical field for the research of experiences of alienation.
3. Love relationships as experiences of affective resonance: Rather than eliminating them, the internet extends the possibilities for experiences of affective resonance. How emotions and affective moments are used and to what extent they play a decisive role, can be shown based on a close-reading of passages from chats and interviews.