Affordable Technology Research Articles

Scripts and Revelations: Notes on the Gender Reveal Party.

"Scripts and Revelations" argues that the gender reveal party is a creative response to the affordances of recent technologies: prenatal tests allow us to discern fetal sex before birth, and social media platforms allow us to share intimate moments for a potentially unlimited audience. Building on the work of scholars of gender (Astri Jack, Carli Gieseler) and disability (Robert McRuer, Tobin Siebers), and interpolating his experience as the father of a young woman with Down syndrome, the author argues that gender and disability cannot be considered in separation, and that the ritual's peculiarities are, in part, a reaction to prenatal tests that disclose both fetal sex and disability status;the gender reveal party strictly separates these-celebrating one, silencing the other-and thus tends to enforcestrict norms around both disability and gender. Examining blog posts about gender reveal parties sponsored by prenatal testing companies, viral videos of catastrophic accidents, and compilations of "gender reveal fails," the author considers the gender reveal party from multiple angles, includingeconomic (the gender reveal is an expressive act within a system that monetizes expression) andtechnological (the ritual reveals the extent to which our lives are coextensive with digital technologies). The author then turnsto personal experience, raising the questionof how to publicly welcome childrenwith disabilities and other differences, those for whom no script of welcome yet exists.

Using Digital Integrated Community Case Management to Strengthen Protocol Adherence Over the Sick Child Recording Form for Under‐Five Children Referrals From Community to Higher Level Facilities in Malawi: Affordance Perspective

ABSTRACTAn effective referral system at the community level of healthcare for under‐five children manages health needs by fostering relationships across all levels of healthcare, enabling patients to receive the best possible care and, in the process, saving lives. However, identifying those who need urgent referral mostly depends on community health workers (CHWs) commitment, which some studies have found inadequate due to nonadherence to the integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) Protocol, a protocol aimed at reducing child mortality and morbidity. Studies have shown that employing mobile Health (mHealth) may circumvent some of the limitations of paper‐based iCCM protocol for patient referrals, which include assessment and treatment of under‐five children. Despite the known benefits of mHealth in supporting CHWs, studies analyzing how the affordance of digital iCCM may strengthen protocol adherence over paper‐based iCCM are lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze how the actualization of digital iCCM may strengthen protocol adherence over the SCRF, consequently, improving referrals from the community to the higher‐level facilities for specialized treatment. The data captured from interviews, focus groups, informal chats, observation and document analysis were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. We found that the Sick Child Recording Form faces challenges due to nonadherence to set guidelines, resulting in misclassification, incorrect drug prescriptions, and consequently, delays in referring patients with acute symptoms to health facilities for specialized treatment. As a contribution, this paper offers a new perspective on the technological affordances of digital iCCM that strengthen protocol adherence in patients' referrals from the community to the higher‐level facilities that include assessment and treatment.

A Systematic Review of Technology Integration in Developing L2 Pragmatic Competence

A growing body of research has explored how technology can enhance the development of pragmatic competence in a second language (L2). This systematic review synthesizes 37 empirical studies published between 2015 and 2024, focusing on various technological applications such as computer-mediated communication (CMC), interactive automated dialogues, virtual environments, and digital games. The analysis highlights that these tools promote pragmatic development by providing authentic or semi-authentic interaction, contextualized learning, and personalized practices. Meanwhile, the review also uncovers key challenges from both technological constraints and individual dimensions. Based on the findings, this review suggests several directions for future research. Further studies should adopt longitudinal, multimodal, and socially situated approaches, explore emerging generative AI technologies, and examine the interaction between individual learner differences and technological affordances to increase understanding of this evolving field.

Design and Development of a Cost Effective WebVR Commerce System Prototype

This project focuses on the design and development of a cost-effective WebVR commerce system prototype to enhance the online shopping experience. Despite the rapid growth of E-commerce, platforms face challenges such as limited interactivity, static product presentations, and lengthy purchasing procedures, which often lead customers to abandon online shopping in favor of physical stores. The proposed WebVR system leverages virtual reality to address these issues, providing an immersive and interactive shopping experience. By enabling users to visualize and explore products in a 3D virtual environment, the system bridges the gap between online and in-store shopping. However, virtual reality often requires costly hardware and powerful workstations to process the positioning data. Therefore, this project focuses on utilizing affordable technologies and frameworks to create a seamless and accessible solution, making WebVR a more practical option for a wider audience.

Translation reception and multilingual faith literacies: a theory of practice inquiry into Quran’s Persian translations

ABSTRACT This inquiry adopts a practice theoretical perspective in thinking about how Quran Persian translations might feature in faith literacies in the multilingual province of Khouzestan, Iran. For the purpose of this inquiry, I conducted ethnographic observations and interviews. To make sense of the data, I drew on sociological theories of practice. As such, the paper underscores the spatiotemporal shaping of faith literacies and recitation practices. Furthermore, the material resources and technological affordances associated with faith literacies enact embodied performances which might determine the boundaries of recitation practices, and hence the reception of Quran translations. Moreover, interviewees’ habitus, particularly their translingual repertoire might rhizomatically bear on the need for translation. Additionally, meanings associated with Quran recitation seem to depend on habitus, translingual repertoire, and language ideologies, the combination of which might render translations either essential or unnecessary. This, at least partly, has to do with the immanent nature of meaning in faith practices characterised by prioritising contextual meaning over propositional content. In sum, the constellation of spatiotemporal resources, material configurations, embodied performance, translingual repertoire as well as language and religious ideologies shape, sustain and constrain the conditions of possibility for the reception of Quran translations within faith literacies and Quran recitation.

Subaltern testimonies: gender-based violence and mediated activism

ABSTRACT Speak-out rallies have been a key site from which feminists have highlighted the prevalence of sexual violence. From these testimonies, feminists developed a nuanced articulation of the nature of sexual violence and laid the groundwork for legal and social reforms. Recently, the technological affordances of social media have amplified concerns over sexual violence and shifted the tenor of these testimonies. This essay highlights these new dispositions and formations by focusing on two subaltern groups’ use of multi-media platforms. The documentary Slaves of the Caliphate (BBC 2015) offers a searing example of how cellphone technologies and Facebook posts helped bring into sharp focus Yazidi women’s material conditions during the war in Syria. Notwithstanding the generic limits of the documentary as a form of witnessing and testimonial, Slaves becomes layered into a larger discourse about liberation politics. Meanwhile, Dalit activists in India have mobilized social media platforms to highlight the specificity of their experiences of caste-based sexual violence. These hashtag campaigns illustrate the limited perch from which subalterns in a caste-based society can give voice to their experiences and enable structural change. These instances of subaltern activism highlight the strategic use of digital and analog media to address sexual violence.

Digital Platforms Boundary Resource: A Third‐Party Developers Strategy for Digital Start‐Ups and Market Penetration in Nigeria

ABSTRACTThird‐party application developers are increasingly using platform‐based business models to enter new markets and create economic value. While prior research has mostly examined the design and architecture of digital platforms, less attention has been given to digital platform boundary resources as an entrepreneurship strategy. The boundary resources of a digital platform significantly impact third‐party developers' motivation to engage in digital entrepreneurship. Consequently, scholars need to carefully investigate the affordances of the boundary resources that influence third‐party developers to create complementary applications as products for entrepreneurial endeavors. To address this gap, the researcher formulated two research questions and conducted an inductive case study to explore the perspectives and views of third‐party application developers in technology hubs within Nigeria's digital start‐up ecosystem. Nigeria has a large youth population with a strong digital potential (i.e., tech‐savvy) and is confronted with uncertainties, limited resources, and complexities. Furthermore, the study is grounded in the technological affordance theory, which guides the researcher's interpretation. The study's findings uncovered the digital platform's boundary resource affordances that play a strategic role in influencing third‐party developers' participation in digital entrepreneurship.

Using Smartphone GPS Data to Detect the Risk of Adolescent Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

Suicide rates among adolescents continue to rise, but there are a lack of clinical tools to predict when youths may be at risk for suicidal behaviors. To identify whether geolocation metrics, assessed through an app installed on adolescents' personal smartphones, could detect the risk of next-week suicidal events and clinically meaningful suicidal ideation. This case series study included high-risk adolescents aged 13 to 18 years reporting a current affective and/or substance use disorder, oversampled for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB). Participants were recruited from the greater New York City and Pittsburgh communities through psychiatric outpatient programs, emergency departments, medical center research registries, and social media. Participants installed the Effortless Assessment Research System (EARS) software application onto their personal smartphones, which obtained passive sensor data, including geolocation metrics (via the global positioning system [GPS]), as well as weekly experience sampling data probing STB for the duration of the 6-month study. Adolescents also completed clinical assessments at baseline as well as during the 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-up assessments. Statistical analysis was performed from March 2023 to November 2024. Repeated measures mixed-effects logistic models estimated whether weekly aggregates of geolocation features (ie, entropy, homestay, distance traveled) were associated with next-week suicidal events (ie, suicide attempts, psychiatric hospitalizations, emergency department visits for suicide concerns) and clinically meaningful ideation (via weekly experience sampling). Overall, 186 participants were included in this study (148 [79.6%] female; 19 [10.2%] Asian, 23 [12.4%] Black, and 106 [57.0%] White), with a mean (SD) age of 16.4 (1.7) years. Greater homestay (amount of time spent at home) on a given week, relative to one's own mean, was associated with 2-fold greater odds of suicidal events during the subsequent week (odds ratio, 1.99 [95% CI, 1.15-3.45]). Results were not significant for entropy and distance traveled metrics. However, using leave-future-out validation, the accuracy of the homestay model was modest (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.64 [95% CI, 0.50-0.78]). Advancements in smartphone technology afford unique opportunities to capture affective and behavioral dynamics that presage suicide risk. This case series study found that greater homestay obtained through smartphone GPS data over the course of a week, relative to one's own mean, was associated with greater odds of a suicidal event in the subsequent week. Although accuracy was modest, these findings offer a novel starting point for suicide prevention research, particularly as smartphone sensor data may have the capacity to identify who is at risk while also providing an opportunity to deliver clinical tools when that risk is greatest.

Wearable Smartphone-Based Multisensory Feedback System for Torso Posture Correction: Iterative Design and Within-Subjects Study.

The prevalence of stroke is high in both males and females, and it rises with age. Stroke often leads to sensor and motor issues, such as hemiparesis affecting one side of the body. Poststroke patients require torso stabilization exercises, but maintaining proper posture can be challenging due to their condition. Our goal was to develop the Postural SmartVest, an affordable wearable technology that leverages a smartphone's built-in accelerometer to monitor sagittal and frontal plane changes while providing visual, tactile, and auditory feedback to guide patients in achieving their best-at-the-time posture during rehabilitation. To design the Postural SmartVest, we conducted brainstorming sessions, therapist interviews, gathered requirements, and developed the first prototype. We used this initial prototype in a feasibility study with individuals without hemiparesis (n=40, average age 28.4). They used the prototype during 1-hour seated sessions. Their feedback led to a second prototype, which we used in a pilot study with a poststroke patient. After adjustments and a kinematic assessment using the Vicon Gait Plug-in system, the third version became the Postural SmartVest. We assessed the Postural SmartVest in a within-subject experiment with poststroke patients (n=40, average age 57.1) and therapists (n=20, average age 31.3) during rehabilitation sessions. Participants engaged in daily activities, including walking and upper limb exercises, without and with app feedback. The Postural SmartVest comprises a modified off-the-shelf athletic lightweight compression tank top with a transparent pocket designed to hold a smartphone running a customizable Android app securely. This app continuously monitors sagittal and frontal plane changes using the built-in accelerometer sensor, providing multisensory feedback through audio, vibration, and color changes. Patients reported high ratings for weight, comfort, dimensions, effectiveness, ease of use, stability, durability, and ease of adjustment. Therapists noted a positive impact on rehabilitation sessions and expressed their willingness to recommend it. A 2-tailed t-test showed a significant difference (P<.001) between the number of the best-at-the-time posture positions patients could maintain in 2 stages, without feedback (mean 13.1, SD 7.12) and with feedback (mean 4.2, SD 3.97), demonstrating the effectiveness of the solution in improving posture awareness. The Postural SmartVest aids therapists during poststroke rehabilitation sessions and assists patients in improving their posture during these sessions.

Exploring the Accessibility of Community-Based Telerehabilitation for Children with Disabilities from Low-Income Households

Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) is a rights-based approach that aims to provide equitable health services and participation opportunities for people with disabilities. Telerehabilitation has emerged as a potential methodology for delivering health care within the CBR framework. However, the accessibility of telerehabilitation presents unique challenges for children with disabilities (CWD) in communities with low socioeconomic status. This phenomenological qualitative study explores the barriers and facilitators that influence the participation of families of CWD in telerehabilitation as a method of CBR in urban poor communities. Nine focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted involving 75 primary caregivers of CWD. Inductive thematic analysis using NVivo software was employed to analyze the collected data, revealing four themes that impact participation in Telerehabilitation: Economic and Social Resources, Self-Competency Affecting Transition, Flexible Service Delivery Mechanism, and Safety and Security as a Threat to Participation. The findings emphasize the intricate interplay of factors influencing the accessibility of telerehabilitation services for CWD from low-income households. Actionable strategies to address these challenges include providing affordable technology and internet access, offering training and support to families, developing culturally sensitive resources, establishing safety protocols, and advocating for inclusive policies and funding mechanisms. Collaboration among healthcare professionals, policymakers, and families is essential in building a resilient and equitable healthcare system that prioritizes the needs of CWD living in poverty. The insights gained from this study can inform the development of targeted interventions and support systems to ensure that no child is left behind in accessing quality care despite the digital and socioeconomic divides.

Countering Misinformation in Private Messaging Groups: Insights From a Fact-checking Chatbot

Misinformation on private messaging platforms like WhatsApp and LINE is a global concern. However, research has primarily focused on combating misinformation on public social media. Misinformation in private messaging platforms is difficult to challenge due to social norms, interpersonal relationships, and technological affordances. This study investigates Auntie Meiyu, a fact-checking chatbot integrated into LINE, a popular private messaging service in Taiwan. We interviewed 27 users who adopted Auntie Meiyu in their messaging groups to understand their motivations and perceptions of the chatbot, and to assess its influence on interpersonal interactions. Participants indicated that they primarily adopted the chatbot to protect close family members from misleading news. Nevertheless, they experienced mixed feelings due to the chatbot's robotic style and errors in detecting misinformation. We conclude that conversational agents present a promising approach for tackling misinformation, particularly when conversational participants disagree, and offer design recommendations for leveraging AI-enabled conversational agents in countering misinformation.

Proposing an Affordable Real-Time Camera-Based Safety and Quality Management Framework for Construction Industries in Developing Countries

The construction industry in developing countries faces persistent challenges, including limited funding, poor infrastructure, insufficient use of technology, and weak quality management practices. These issues reduce productivity, compromise safety, and lower efficiency, often resulting in project delays, cost overruns, and substandard structures. This study introduces a safety and quality management framework that uses affordable camera technology and a structured web-based platform to address these challenges. The proposed system is designed to identify, document, and resolve potential issues systematically, fostering safer and more efficient construction environments. This research addresses the gap between the potential of technological advancements and their limited adoption in resource-constrained settings. Financial barriers often limit the availability of expertise on-site and restrict access to sophisticated tools, while inadequate quality control exacerbates risks, wastes resources, and undermines project outcomes. By introducing an affordable, easy-to-deploy solution, this study aims to bridge that gap and improve industry practices. Initial case studies have demonstrated promising results, including achieving acceptable quality and safety levels through the help of expertise from abroad. This paper details the design, implementation, and scalability of the proposed system while highlighting its adaptability to diverse construction contexts in developing nations. Additionally, it emphasizes the broader benefits of integrating technology into the construction industry, such as promoting economic growth and supporting sustainable development. Adopting this high-impact, cost-effective solution has the potential to significantly enhance technical capabilities, improve efficiency, and elevate social conditions through safer and more sustainable construction practices. This framework represents a transformative opportunity for the construction industry in developing countries, contributing to long-term progress and prosperity.

Impact of Magneto-Mechanical Actuation on Cell Differentiation: A Study Using Wireless, 3D-Printed Device and a Porous Ferrogel.

Cells perceive external and internally generated forces of different kinds, significantly impacting their cellular biology. In the relatively nascent field of mechanobiology, the impact of such forces is studied and further utilized to broaden the knowledge of cellular developmental pathways, disease progression, tissue engineering, and developing novel regenerative strategies. However, extensive considerations of mechanotransduction pathways for biomedical applications are still broadly limited due to a lack of affordable technologies in terms of devices and simple magnetic actuatable materials. Herein, synthesizing a monophasic, macroporous, in situ-fabricated gelatin-based ferrogel is reported using polyethylene glycol (PEG) coated-iron oxide (magnetite) particles with high magnetization. Developing a 3D printed, compact, and wireless device capable of providing a wide range of magneto-mechanical actuation using magnetic field susceptible materials in a noncontact manner is reported. Using the device and ferrogel, C2C12 myoblast differentiation is studied under magnetic field actuation, and significant differences in the myogenin, a differentiation marker, expression behavior are observed. Due to careful design considerations, robust component selection, and easy availability oflow-cost precursor for magnetic responsive material fabrication, the device-ferrogel combination can be easily adapted to routine biological studies, thereby helping mechanobiology to be utilized for developing exciting new biomedical strategies.

Beneficial or troublesome? Revealing the double-edged effects of tourism live streaming affordances on viewers’ engagement

ABSTRACT Tourism live streaming (TLS) empowers streamers to act with destinations, viewers, and products, namely TLS affordance. Underpinning the technology affordance theory, this study unravels the impact of the TLS affordances on TLS engagement of viewers by conducting an online survey. The results show that (1) TLS affordances have double-edged effects on destination brand engagement and viewer engagement; (2) product involvement moderates the Inverted U-shaped (U-shaped) effects of product visibility (guidance shopping) on memorable experiences (consumer skepticism). This study provides theoretical and practical implications for destination managers, live streamers, and product manufacturers in optimizing the efficiency of TLS affordances.

A review of biogas upgrading technologies: key emphasis on electrochemical systems.

Biogas, consisting mainly of CO2 and CH4, offers a sustainable source of energy. However, this gaseous stream has been undervalued in wastewater treatment plants owing to its high CO2 content. Biogas upgrading by capturing CO2 broadens its utilisation as a substitute for natural gas. Although biogas upgrading is a widely studied topic, only up to 35% of produced raw biogas is upgraded in the world. To open avenues for development research on biogas upgrading, this paper reviews biogas as a component in global renewable energy production and upgrading technologies focusing on electrochemically driven CO2 capture systems. Recent progress in electrochemical CO2 separation including its energy requirement, CO2 recovery rate, and challenges for upscaling are critically explored. Electrochemical CO2 separation systems stand out for achieving the most affordable technology among the upgrading systems with a low net energy requirement of 0.25 kWh/kg CO2. However, its lower CO2 recovery rate compared to conventional technologies, which leads to high capital expenditure limits the commercialisation of this technology. In the last part of this review, the future perspectives to overcome the challenges associated with electrochemical CO2 capture are discussed.

The Potential of Low-Tech Tools and Artificial Intelligence for Monitoring Blue Carbon in Greenland’s Deep Sea

Arctic environments are changing rapidly. To assess climate change impacts and guide conservation, there is a need to effectively monitor areas of high biodiversity that are difficult to access, such as the deep sea. Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat), like many remote countries with large deep-sea exclusive economic zones (EEZs), lacks consistent access to the funding and logistics required to maintain advanced and expensive technologies for seafloor exploration. To fill this need, video and camera imaging technologies have been adapted to suit the unique requirements of Arctic environments and the social and economic needs of Greenland. Since 2015, a benthic monitoring program carried out by the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR) has provided the only large-scale, comprehensive survey in this region, including collection and analysis of photos and GoPro video footage recorded as deep as 1,600 m (Blicher, and Arboe, 2021). In line with the “collect once, use many times” principle, GINR is exploring the versatility of these data, which were originally designated for monitoring and evidence-based management. A potential research avenue for these data is polar blue carbon—the carbon stored and sequestered in ocean habitats—including benthic communities that either live on the seafloor (such as corals and sponges) or are transported there by ocean currents (such as algal detritus). This paper outlines Greenland’s affordable deep-sea technology, based on a towed camera system (Yesson, 2023), and its potential application to rapid, standardized artificial intelligence (AI)-based analysis.

Oscillation Between Resist and to Not? Users’ Folk Theories and Resistance to Algorithmic Curation on Douyin

An increasing number of users are aware of algorithmically driven content curation. Yet, while numerous studies have examined how people understand algorithmic power, there are insufficient numbers of studies about how people respond to and resist algorithmic curation in different sociocultural contexts. This article adopts a walk-through method and a diary-interview approach with 31 participants to investigate user resistance to algorithmic curation in different sociocultural circumstances. Drawing on the theoretical framework of folk theories and user resistance to algorithms, this study reveals a paradox in users’ algorithmic awareness and resistance behaviors: although respondents said they expressed annoyance with algorithmic simplification, commercial exploitation, and political agenda-setting, they often behaved in ways that contradict those claims with oscillated resistance to algorithmic curation. This study found that this paradox of resistance not only reflects users’ efforts to reconcile sociocultural needs with digital irritations caused by algorithmic mismatches but also arises from a sense of digital resignation in response to the platform’s strict regulations and censorship. Thus, this article argues that although people espouse folk theories as resources to resist algorithmic curation in different sociocultural contexts, most of their resistance behaviors remain constrained within the dominant use of technological affordances, which largely functions as a process of continuous negotiation rather than a subversive force capable of disrupting the ideological power relations embedded in algorithm-driven platforms.

Material Catholic Afterlives: Archaeological Notes on Sacrality and Secondhand Shopping

Abstract: This article is an ethnographic archaeology of Catholic material culture as it circulates through secondhand economies. Via estate sales, auctions, antique shops, flea markets, thrift stores, eBay, Instagram, and Etsy, Catholiciana is bought, sold, and recontextualized for new ownership every day. In the contemporary U.S., several structural patterns—parish closures, the decline in Catholic adherence, and the death of a generation of Catholics who maintained extensive personal devotional collections—intersect to create conditions in which Catholic materials become secondhand commodities. We explore how circulation is structured by the technological affordances of devotional material; how the sensory and social histories of objects are erased through patterns of discard and partially recovered through traces of use; and, how discovered objects are presented to market publics by actors with divergent stances toward institutional Catholicism. Ultimately, we attend to Catholic objects as both devotional and disposable in order to better understand how objects pass in and out of the commodity state, their shifting valuation, their appeal to different audiences, and recalibrations of power and potency.

Evolving “affordances” and “constraints” in mobile payment use: a study of Indian micro-enterprises’ UPI adoption process

PurposeThis research aims to uncover how the adoption process of a mobile payment solution unfolds in its local use. We examined micro-enterprises’ adoption of UPI-based payment system in India.Design/methodology/approachWe employed an ethnographic approach to study the micro-entrepreneurs’ daily practice and adopted a relational ontology to conduct an “in-practice” enquiry of the UPI payment adoption process.FindingsApplying the practice perspective of Technology Affordances and Constraints Theory, we found that UPI adoption was shaped through a dynamic interplay of emerging affordances and constraints. New features, such as All-in-one QR, enabled actions like cross-platform money transfer but also introduced challenges like fraud. Advancements in the technology addressed previous challenges but also created new hurdles. This cycle of evolving affordances and constraints within the contextual use of UPI payment technology shaped its adoption process.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings contribute to the existing body of mobile payment literature by elucidating the role of localized and ongoing enactment of affordances and constraints. Unlike existing adoption theories, using relational concepts of affordances and constraints revealed how the integration of mobile payment into practice leads to emergent use patterns and widespread adoption.Practical implicationsWe emphasize the need for solutions that address localized challenges and contextual needs. The study advises policymakers to consider technology’s benefits and limitations in interventions.Originality/valueThe study offers a unique view on mobile payment adoption, highlighting the role of technological materiality and temporality. It reveals how the changing materiality of technology shapes the adoption process through localized affordances and constraints.

Hyperpersonal Communication in Sexual Fantasies: A Study on Users of Paid Video Call Sex Services in Indonesia

The virtual era has redefined intimacy, with virtual platforms becoming a medium for fulfilling sexual desires in tangible ways. This article examines how hyperpersonal communication leverages Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) technologies to facilitate sexual fantasies through paid Video Call Sex (VCS) services in Indonesia. Grounded in theories of Hyperpersonal Communication, Fetishism, Media Equation, and Cyberculture, this study analyzes how virtual media's technological affordances and communication processes enable the realization of sexual fantasies. Paid VCS services, as a form of cybersex, represent a convergence of economic motives and the pursuit of intimate satisfaction. Operating through instant messaging applications equipped with video and audio capabilities, these services have emerged as a digital avenue for sexual transactions. Using a qualitative descriptive approach with five online participants, this research highlights the intricate communication dynamics between users and service providers, focusing on the negotiation processes that shape and accommodate personalized sexual fantasies. These findings contribute to understanding how hyperpersonal communication unfolds in the context of virtual sexual interactions, revealing the interplay of technology, intimacy, and economic motives in contemporary digital culture