title: Psychodynamic Factors Behind Online Social Networking and its Excessive Use.
abstract: This article discusses the psychodynamic factors behind the popularity of one form of Internet activity, online social networking (SN). It views online SN as an extension of the social self, organized in a way that is more controllable than real life relating. The SN platforms reward its users with reassuring surfaces and novel self-object experiences while at the same time induces much anxiety. The addictive quality of online SN is understood in the context of collapse of dialectical space and the defensive use of this technology.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatrist in private practice.
authors.forename: Thomas Cheuk Wing
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000523:psychology*; D004532:Ego; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D060756:Social Networking
keywords: addiction; intersubjectivity; online; potential space; social networking