ORKUT AND ITS CONNECTION WITH PERSONAL AND COUPLE’S INTIMACY

Abstract

This work aims to understand how subjects deal with intimacy in the relationship website called Orkut, in both individual and love affective ways. A qualitative research was made, which used the questionnaire as a technique of data collection. It intended to cover 8 (eight) areas: sample profile; why Orkut; information revealed by Orkut; Orkut versus “face-to-face world”; affective and loving relationship; when the partner is in Orkut; when the partner is not in Orkut; and fake profile in Orkut. For data analysis, the hermeneutic-dialectic method was used. We verified that subjects are aware that Orkut is a service for personal exposure, and its main purpose is to know about other people’s lives. For this reason, many individuals take care to restrict which information they expose. We also noticed that subjects enjoy when their partners are in Orkut, so they feel they can control the relationship.