University of Helsinki
Are the offline and the online two competing social worlds, which need to be balanced? How does great online engagement affect close offline relationships with family and friends?
A new study by Hellman, Karjalainen and Majamäki (2016), published in the journal New Media and Society inquires into how persons in a close relationship with a gamer of Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) perceive relationship problems caused by the gaming hobby. The study points to the timeliness in devoting attention to the premises under which intimacy and commitment are negotiated in offline and online relationship constellations.
Eight deep interviews were conducted with people who were in a close relationship with a large scale gamer and would have lived together with the gamer during the time when they played the most. Four dimensions of problems rose from the material:
In the first dimension of problem conceptualizations the interviewees identified a neglect of the relationship work in different situations in everyday life, interpreted as a neglect of the expected input and sensitivity that the relationship work would require.
In the second set of problem conceptualizations the common trait was a recurrent neglect of the joint relationship goals, and the joint project of a ‘shared history’. The cultivation of the bond between the parties is seen as abandoned by the gamer, and this is seen as a displaced prioritization in relation to overall life goals and orders of worth.
A breakage with an ideal relationship’s communication and interaction is in the third category of problems conceptualized both in amount and quality of communication. The expected, required and conventional communication is decreasing over time.
In the fourth category of conceptualizations autonomy is negotiated in view of a trustworthiness related to autonomy and self identity. The interviewees perceived a strived-for condition where parties’ identity and self-worth are expressed and confirmed according to norms and codes that had been cultivated in the relationship interaction culture. In this type of conceptualizations the concept of addiction – as in being compulsively and against the own will involved in the online activities – was negotiated.
The study suggests that the breakage with relationship codes between parties, where one is heavily invested in online gaming, can be viewed on a continuum between the normal and the problematic in the four dimensions presented.
The study’s results constitute a theoretical backdrop that could be used for inquiries into all sorts of great commitment and engagement (hobbies, work etc) by one party in a close relationship.
Hellman, M, Karjalainen, S & Majamäki, M. (2016) ‘Present yet absent’: Negotiating commitment and intimacy in life with an excessive online role gamer. New Media & Society http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/03/08/1461444816636091.abstract