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Expansion of virtual networks and the Internet has become a major challenge to the traditional forms in which socialization takes place. The aim of this study was to explore the virtual socialization of adolescent students in high schools in Sari, Mazandaran, Iran. The statistical population of this study included all high school students in Sari. The sample population consisted of 380 students selected through multi-stage cluster sampling method. The survey method was used in this research and the data was collected through a questionnaire. The results indicated that the degree to which the students were virtually socialized varied. 64 percent of them showed average socialization, 14 percent high, and 22 percent of them low socialization. The results of multivariate regression analysis, showed that “personal integrity requirements” (β = 0/82), “escape- from- reality requirements” (β =0/4), “social cohesion requirements” (β= 0/35) had greatest impact on the virtual socialization. In addition, the coefficient of determination showed that the independent variables of the study explained 43% of the variance in the dependent variable (virtual socialization). The results also showed that gender did not make a significant difference in the virtual socialization of the adolescent students.  

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Death has always been a major concern of humanity. However, encountering unexpected deaths is considered to have been one of the most difficult encounters of human beings throughout history, although this cultural and social encounter has been time-and-place-dependent. On this basis, this study has been designed to explore the process of the bereaved people's presence in the cyberspace and to achieve a deep understanding of the role of cyberspace in the bereaved people's lives using the qualitative approach and grounded theory. The required data were collected using in-depth interviews with some bereaved people who had lost one of their immediate family members for a time period ranging from four months to four years. The collected data were then conceptualized and analyzed using the three open, axial and selective coding processes. The findings showed that the central phenomenon is the bereaved profiles, which represent the occurrence of a loss and virtual memorials. Faced with the bereaved profiles, the bereaved people experience and perceive outcomes by adopting strategies such as deconstruction of virtual sociability. In this way, they ultimately rethink the loss in the cyberspace.