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
