Romance Through Digital Avatars: Online Courtship, Representation and “Catfishing” Amongst Irregular Female Migrants in Sabah
Somiah, V. (2023) — New Media in the Margins
Type:
Book Chapter
Country:
Singapore
Synopsis (AI-Generated)
This chapter explores how irregular young female migrants in Sabah, who face local ostracism and exclusion from social spaces, use digital avatars to conduct multiple online romances described as catfishing. It interprets these alternative digital lives as a means of regaining some control over personal narratives and relationships when offline agency is constrained. The topic is online identity and precarious migration rather than a measured study of financial romance fraud, so it should not be summarized as evidence about scam prevalence, losses, or offender tactics. The available extract offers only brief insights and does not report participant numbers, recruitment, data collection, analysis, or relationship outcomes, making the empirical scope and transferability impossible to assess.
Identified Gaps (AI-Generated)
The text identifies a broader Malaysian research gap: scholarship on new-media use among marginalised communities is “largely nascent” and tends to emphasise access and short-term benefits rather than deeper real-world effects. The chapter contributes brief insight into irregular female migrants’ online romances and catfishing, but the supplied text does not indicate an established evidence base specifically on this population or practice.
Methods (AI-Generated)
The supplied text characterises the chapter as an exploration of irregular female migrants in Sabah. It examines how young adults, ostracised locally and excluded from social spaces, engage in multiple online romances using digital avatars, a practice described as “catfishing.” The overview interprets alternative digital lives as a way to regain control over personal narratives and considers the place of online romances within precarious daily routines. No sampling, data-collection, or analytic procedure is reported in the supplied extract.
Limitations (AI-Generated)
The chapter is described only as providing “brief insights,” suggesting a bounded case-study contribution rather than a comprehensive account. The supplied text does not provide the chapter’s participant numbers, recruitment, data sources, time frame, analytic procedure, or evidence about relationship outcomes. Consequently, the scope, transferability, and whether avatar use involves deception, fraud, mutual role-play, or other forms of online self-representation cannot be assessed from the available text.
Future Work (AI-Generated)
Further research is needed on online spaces used by marginalised and “Othered” Malaysian communities, including how digital media can provide agency while also reproducing exclusion. For this topic, future work should examine irregular female migrants’ avatar-based romances beyond the brief insights described here, using clearly reported methods and attention to the effects of these relationships.
AI-Generated Content Notice
The synopsis and research notes on this page were generated with AI from available publication information and, when available, the uploaded paper text. They may contain errors, omissions, or interpretation issues. Readers should follow the DOI or source link, review the original publication, and make their own judgment about the content.
Found a possible error? Request a correction.