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Based on two decades of participant-observation field research in diverse online environments, this engaging book offers insights for improving lifestyles and enhancing wellbeing in the digital age. John R. Suler, a founder of the field of cyberpsychology, explains its fundamental principles across a wide variety of topics, including online identity management, disinhibition, communication via text and photographs, intimacy and misunderstandings in online relationships, conflicting attitudes toward social media, addiction, deviant behavior, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and media overload. He provides a new framework, the 'Eight Dimensions of Cyberpsychology Architecture', which researchers, students, and general readers interested in cyberpsychology can apply as a valuable tool for creating and understanding different digital realms. Psychology of the Digital Age focuses on the individual, shedding new light on our conscious as well as subconscious reactions to online experiences and our intrinsic human need to self-actualize.
List of contents
List of figures; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction: newborns in evolution; 1. Cyberpsychology architecture; 2. Presence: be here now; 3. The dynamic digital psyche; 4. The disinhibited self; 5. Electrified relationships; 6. Other than you think: interpersonal perceptions; 7. Text talk; 8. Image talk; 9. I, avatar; 10. One of us: groups and communities; 11. Change and excess; 12. Addicted or devoted; 13. The digital deviant; 14. Synthesized realities and synthesized beings; 15. Electric therapeutics; Conclusion: research and the researcher; References; Index.
About the author
John R. Suler is Professor of Psychology at Rider University's Science and Technology Center and Honorary Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He has published widely on cyberpsychology, Eastern philosophy, photographic psychology, psychotherapy, and creativity, including the book Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Eastern Thought.
Summary
This book provides an engaging overview of life in the digital realm that will benefit scholars, students, and general readers. A founder of the cyberpsychology field, John R. Suler offers insights for improving wellbeing online, highlighting principles about identity management, online relationships, social media, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and media overload.
