Apps and Intimate Relationships

Gardner, H & Davis, K 2013, ‘Apps and
Intimate Relationships’, The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate
Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 92-119.

This book chapter questions whether developments in
modern technology are beneficial or detrimental to the quality of interpersonal
relationships. The findings are based heavily on research conducted on American
teenagers and are interpreted within two distinct frameworks; identity and
intimacy. The former states that technology allows for the curation of an online
persona but imposes pressure to be constantly available and reactive. The latter
suggests that technological connections result in a reduced capacity to express
empathy, as well as an increased sense of isolation. Gardner concludes that
technology has given humans the ability to be constantly connected, whilst simultaneously
feeling more alone. Gardner is a highly awarded developmental psychologist and research
professor, who has published 30 books and who founded the Theory of Multiple
Intelligences. Despite coming from a highly credible source, this chapter’s
heavy focus on the online interaction of youth, particularly within the context
of friendship rather than romantic intimacy, renders it only partially relevant
to my research essay.