virtual relationships

• now common to develop relationships by communicating through social media
• psychologists interested why online relationships seem to disclose more and develop intimacy sooner than in real life
• absence of gating mechanisms

  communicating online removes a number of factors that normally act as filters of barriers stopping interactions in face to face encounters
• absence of gating mechanisms


  barriers such as level of physical attractiveness, speech defects, age group or being from different social or ethnic background
• reduced cue theories


  computers lack some features of face to face communication such as non verbal communication, facial expressions, may result in people reading too much / what they wanted into typed communication
• anonymity


  deindividuation results in reduction of feelings of responsibility, leading to loss of inhibition, individuals can say things online that they never would in real life
• anonymity


  lack of normal distancing behaviours that face to face interactions are normally regulated lead to feelings of closeness and intimacy but also behaviours like sexting or trolling
• hyperpersonal model walther 1996


  people can manipulate their online identity significantly and control interactions to display a hyper honest, or hyper dishonest version of self