Your picture is your bait: Use and meaning of cyberspace among gay men

Abstract

The Internet is seen by many as a form of cyberspace or environment in which to interact and socialise. This research project drew from the data of a quantitative and qualitative study of gay men in Perth, Western Australia. We examined gay men's usage patterns of chat rooms and other social aspects of the Internet to meet sexual partners. We then reviewed in detail the meanings gay men have for the various Internet environments, and the range of friendship, relationship, casual, or esoteric sex-seeking goals. We argue that gay men view and engage with the Internet differently from how they view and engage with other more traditional gay spaces. This different approach influences how interaction between the men, either online or face-to-face, progresses and how assumptions and expectations are built. This has implications for how sexual health promotion interventions determine the appropriate role and relationship they have with these online social spaces.

Using the Internet in Pursuit of Public Sexual Encounters

“…Knowing that some sex venue users who frequently initiate public sex encounters through the Internet are HIVpositive could be useful in designing appropriate HIV/ STI interventions that encourage these men to negotiate safer behaviors that can prevent transmission before their encounters go offline (e.g., strategic positioning; Parsons et al, 2005). Researchers have suggested that online sexual negotiation may lower HIV transmission risk (Brown, Maycock, & Burns, 2005) and has been associated with condom use (Carballo-Diéguez, Miner, Dolezal, Rosser, & Jacoby, 2006).…”

School PE through Internet discussion forums

“…Internet discussion forums have been used for listening to voices online in the context of personal and intimate matters, for example eating disorders (e.g. Ransom, La Guardia, Woody & Boyd 2010), breast cancer , prostate cancer (Broom 2005), girls and Web forums (Grisso & Weiss 2005), homosexuality (Brown, Maycock & Burns 2005), motherhood (Drentea & Moren-Cross 2005), and family relations (Eriksson 2013). In Finland, recent dissertation studies have addressed girls and sexuality and multilingual language among football players (Kytölä 2013) in Internet discussion forums.…”

Prevention of HIV and Other Sexually Transmissible Infections in Expatriates and Traveler Networks: Qualitative Study of Peer Interaction in an Online Forum (Preprint)

“…All members of the mixed gender team had spent time in Thailand with three of the members collaborating on previous research in Phuket at the commencement of the research project. Members of the team were also experienced in conducting research in the use of online strategies for public health [14,[29][30][31].…”

“…Such settings can enhance social capital and community connection and decrease social isolation particularly for those who may be difficult to engage or access through more traditional communication methods, or for those who may not identify with general health promotion messages [3,[10][11][12][13]. These methods may also reduce geographic, economic or social barriers caused by stigmatization and marginalization, and afford some level of confidentiality and anonymity to individuals seeking support or information online [10, [14][15][16][17].…”