Towards ‘romantic media ideologies’: digital dating abuse seen through the lens of social media and/or dating in teenage narratives
Abstract
The article addresses the teenagers’ perception of those forms of teen dating violence that occur on digital media (i.e., ‘digital dating abuse,’ DDA), such as snooping around, controlling behaviors, and aggravated sexting. It contributes to the strand of studies on DDA and those on the mutual shaping relationship between technology and society by focusing on the interplay between social media usage practices and dating practices among teenagers narrating DDA. We carried out 7 focus groups in Rome with 43 high school students aged 14–16 years, in order to explore whether and how the negotiation with social media platforms and the interaction between dating partners affect the adolescents’ perception of DDA. The thematic analysis reveals that participants refer to idioms of practice informed by media ideologies when seeing DDA as an issue related to social media, or to dating scripts supported by romantic ideologies when seeing it as an issue related to dating. They oscillate between these two interpretative ‘lenses,’ thus intertwining the platform social usage norms and broader societal beliefs surrounding dating relationships. In doing so, they give rise to ‘digital dating scripts’ and ‘romantic media ideologies’ which nowadays rule their dating relationships in a very specific way.
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Adolescents extensively use digital technologies to initiate, maintain, and end romantic relationships.
“they extensively use digital technologies to initiate, maintain, and end romantic relationships (Belotti et al., 2022; Galende et al., 2020; Tienda et al., 2022; Vaterlaus et al., 2018)”
From Romantic myths and cyber dating violence victimization in Spanish adolescents: A moderated mediation model (2023) · cites this paper as Belotti et al., 2022
Cites
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006) · Qualitative Research in Psychology · doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa · Cited by 194,414 · see citing works
Stonard, K. E. (2020) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2019.106211 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
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Cava, M.-J., Castillo, I., Tomás, I., & Buelga, S. (2023) · Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace · doi:10.5817/cp2023-2-4 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“In the technological world where they currently develop their social relationships (Belotti et al., 2022; Navarro et al., 2021; Tienda et al., 2022; Vaterlaus et al., 2018), it is essential to educate adolescents about the consequences of their online behaviors so that they can use these…”
Background
- Authors
- Belotti, F., Ieracitano, F., Donato, S., & Comunello, F.
- Affiliations
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Belotti, Francesca
- Venue
- The Communication Review
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-01-02
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 30-53
- ISSN
- 1071-4421 (ISSN-L)
- 1547-7487
- OpenAlex
- W4210560677
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 3.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Communication Review (publishedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università degli Studi dell Aquila (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Feminism, and Media
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- adolescent dating violence, social media, adolescents, Romantic ideology, media ideology, sexting, eavesdropping, controlling behavior, technology and society, high school students
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