Producing intimacy in virtual reality

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7150993
AutoresRagan Glover (0000-0002-7103-131X, University of Michigan), Ragan Glover-Rijkse (University of Michigan, autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume31
Fascículo2
Páginas654-671
Data de publicação2025-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoConvergence The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1354-8565 • E-ISSN: 1748-7382
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13548565241283437
OpenAlexW4402535286
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas59

This article offers an autoethnographic account of the author’s experiences with facilitating relational intimacy in the Oculus Meta Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) platform. In doing so, it provides accounts of the author conversing, playing games, and watching movies with her relational partner. It also details the author’s user practices for contending with such issues as limited social and physical fidelity, functional limitations of the VR device, infrastructural failure, and data privacy. The discussion is organized into three inter-related sections: (1) intimate-affective experiences in VR, (2) the materialities of VR intimacy, and (3) the politics of VR intimacy. The article applies a critical materialist perspective to interrogate how VR environments might contribute to the production of intimate-affective experiences for some users. It demonstrates how these intimate-affective experiences are produced in coordination with the materialities and attendant politics of VR. The article concludes by suggesting that the politics of platforms and infrastructures become the politics of digitally mediated intimacy

Human–computer interaction · Sociology · Virtual reality · Cinema and Media Studies · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology