March 19, 2024 | Log in
 
 

Concept

The Research Training Group “Connecting Virtual and Real Social Worlds” addresses the increase in digitization and its resulting virtualization of processes, communication, environments, and finally of the human counterparts. The nature and the degree of virtualization vary significantly, and they depend considerably on the context of application. In addition, media-mediated communication is always restricted in comparison with real-world communication.

Objective

Our goal is to overcome the current constraints of media-mediated communication. In doing so, we will study which new ways of interaction and communication are offered by the connection of virtual and real social worlds in comparison with the experience of immediate real interaction and communication.

Fields of Research

The research program subdivides the connection between virtual and real social environments into the fields of: communication, emotions, sensomotorics, and learning. Research in these areas is performed within interdisciplinary research tandems consisting of computer scientists and social scientists on a doctoral, postdoctoral, and on the supervisory level.