Virtual relationships

• What are virtual relationships like on social media?

  • Characterised heavily by the loss of non-verbal communication, meaning interactions are dependent upon words and nothing else
  • Non-verbal paralanguage can include body language, eye gaze, pauses and tone of voice, that can express liking even when verbal communication does not
• What is the reduced cues theory arguing for lower self-disclosure in virtual relationships?

  • Sproull and Kiesler (1986): CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) are less effective that FtF interactions due to lacking non-verbal cues such as our appearance, emotional state, tone of voice, etc.
  • Can lead to de-individuation (reducing people's sense of identity) and encourages disinhibition in relating to others
  • Communication can come off as blunt or aggressive, and will result in a reluctance to form meaningful relationships with people who seem so impersonal
• What is the hyper personal model arguing for higher self-disclosure in virtual relationships?

  • Walther (2011): online relationships can involve greater SD than FtF ones because they develop quickly and become more intense and intimate
  • Selective self-presentation: people have more time to present themselves in an ideal way and can manipulate relationships into being more intimate - can be hyper-honest (intensely truthful) or hyper-dishonest (intensely false)
  • Strangers on a train effect: we disclose more about ourselves to strangers because we feel less accountable and detached from our actions when we are not associated with an identity
• What is the absence of gating theory?

  • Gates are any obstacles to forming a relationship - FtF interaction is said to be gated due to involving features that can interfere with the early development of a relationship
  • McKenna and Bargh (1999): Absence of gating in CMCs means relationships refocus attention on self-disclosure and away from what can be considered superficial and distracting features like our appearances
  • Allows self-disclosure and intimacy to develop - when gates are revealed they don't matter as much because SD has already happened
• What is research support for the absence of gating?

  • McKenna and Bargh (2020): looked at online communication by shy people finding they are able to express their 'true selves' more than FtF
  • 71% of romantic relationships initially formed online by shy people survived at least 2 years, compared to Kirkpatrick and Davis (1994) finding that only 49% survived 2 years when formed FtF
  • Suggests shy people benefit online presumably because the gating that obstructs FtF relationships is absent online
• Why are most relationships multimodal?

  • Walther (2011): hyper-personal model and absence of gating theories explain how there is higher SD in CMCs because of certain features unique to online relationships like selective self-representation
  • But fail to take into account that most relationships are multimodal - conducted both online and offline rather than 'either/or' and what we choose to disclose online is influenced by our offline interactions
  • Shows theories are partial and limited