Stable intimacy Design of online communication as a tool to enhance wellbeing

Abstract

Humans have the innate need to belong and relate to others. Stable relationships are a great influencer of happiness and health and, therefore, should receive stronger attention for their nurture. Online environment is steadily becoming the primary source of relationship formation, however, its instability poses threats to build stable relationships. Since online communication is increasingly used in relationship formation and communication, it holds opportunities for design interventions that support stable relationship creation. This paper introduces a pyramidical laddering approach that guides the building of online communication from the basis of stable creation of intimacy, to satisfying the needs of belonging and relatedness, to ultimately delivering wellbeing. The approach that was developed through the authors’ prior research aims to deal with the identified main barriers of online communication, distrust and disengagement, and their influence on the formation of stable connections in order to enable healthy intimacy formation in the online environment. This paper brings attention to the importance of romantic relationships on health and highlights opportunities for further research in the thus far under-researched area of design for relation making to support wellbeing and health of society.