Virtual Relationships in Social Media

• What is Reduced Cues Theory?

  • Virtual relationships are less effective than FtF ones because they lack many of the cues we normally depend on in FtF interactions
  • These include non verbal cues such as physical appearance and cues related to our emotional state
  • This reduces a persons sense of individuality in virtual relationships which leads to disinhibition
  • People feel more free to communicate in blunt and aggressive ways
  • People are less likely to express their real thoughts and feelings to someone who is impersonal
• Who proposed Reduced Cues Theory?

  Sproull and Kiesler
• Who proposed the Hyperpersonal Model?

  Walther
• What is the Hyperpersonal Model?

  Virtual Relationships can be more personal and involve greater self-disclosure that FtF ones because they can develop very quickly as self-disclosure happens earlier and once established they are more intense and intimate
• What is the first key feature of the Hyperpersonal Model?

  • The sender of a message has greater control over what to disclose and the cues they send than they would in an FtF situation
  • This is selective self-presentation
  • The sender manipulates their self-image to present themselves in an idealised way
  • To achieve this they can send both intensely truthful (hyperhonest) and / or intensely false (hyperdishonest)
• What is the second key feature of the Hyperpersonal Model?

  • The receiver gains a positive impression of the sender
  • They may give feedback that reinforces the senders selective self-presentation
• What is another factor that can promote self-disclosure in online relationships?

  • Bargh et al
  • Anonymity
• What is a Gate in relationships?

  • Any obstacle to forming a relationship
  • FtF interaction is gated as it involves many features that can interfere with early development of a relationship
• What are the Benefits of a Gate being absent in relationships?

  • They are absent in virtual relationships
  • This means a relationship can develop to the point where self-disclosure becomes more frequent and deeper allowing the relationship to get off the ground in a way less likely to happen FtF
  • Individuals are freed to be their true selves
• What a drawbacks of gates being absent in relationships?

  • People can create untrue identities and deceive people in ways that they could never manage FtF
• Research support for the Hyperpersonal Model:

  • Duthler
  • Communications we have more control over (email) will be more polite than communications we have less control over (voicemail)
  • Recruited 151 students
  • Random allocation into one of 2 conditions
  • One condition had to write an email and the other send a voicemail
  • Each message was carefully analysed by independent judges (did not know hypothesis of study)
  • Rated politeness on a standard 9 point scale
  • Inter-rater reliability of ratings = 0.853
• Why do we have more control over email messages?

  • Time to prepare
  • Can edit messages
  • Don't have to manage non verbal cues associated with with a voicemail
• Research support for the absence of Gating:

  • McKenna and Bargh
  • Found that socially anxious people were able to express their 'true selves' more easily through CMC
  • 70% of their relationships formed online survived longer than 2 years
• Lack of research support for Reduced Cues Theory:

  • Walther and Tidwell
  • Cues in CMC are different from those found in FtF ones e.g. use of emojis, grammar and tone
  • Therefore it is not true that there are reduced cues
  • Suggests that there is no difference between CMC and FtF
• Limitation - Relationships are multimodal

  • Most theories of CMC do not take into account that relationships are usually conducted both online and offline
  • This affects self-disclosure e.g. the hyperpersonal model may not apply if you are communicating with someone you have already met or with someone you want to meet in the future