Relationships and Digital communication

Question 1

Types of relationships formed via online:

Answer 1

• Friendship,
• Chatrooms,
• Game rooms,
• Enemies,
• Colleagues,
• Long Distance.

Question 2

Granovetter (1973): Strong Ties:

Answer 2

• The strengths of ties between the individuals can be measured as follows:
  1. The amount of time spent together.
  2. The emotional intensity of the relationships.
  3. The level of intimacy.
  4. The degree of reciprocity.

Question 3

Granovetter (1973): Weak Ties:

Answer 3

• Argues that weak ties are most important as they connect individuals to whom they have less in common with and would likely not be able to connect with through strong ties.
• Therefore the removal of an average weak tie would be potentially more damaging to the persons social network than the removal of an average strong tie.

Question 4

Zhao (2006):

Answer 4

• Activities that tend to connect people together tend to have positive correlations to social ties, meaning that they have strengthen relationships.
• There which are solitary in nature, surfing the internet, tend to have more negative correlations to social life.

Question 5

Kraut et al (2002):

Answer 5

• Research in the 1990s suggested that most individuals using the internet for social purposes also maintained their offline relationships.
• Online relationships tend to be weaker more than those formed and maintained offline.

Question 6

Feld (1981):

Answer 6

• Suggests that people use social networks to evaluate both themselves and others.
• An individual identity is partially determined by the network of friends they maintain.

Question 7

Shaw and Grant (2002):

Answer 7

• Tests the previous study which found that the internet use correlates with depression, loneliness and stress, leading to public opinion that the internet is negative.
• Shaw and Grant: Test view that the internet usage can affect users beneficially.
• Found that the internet in fact decreased the loneliness and depression significantly, while perceived social support and self-esteem increased significantly.

Question 8

Daniel Miller:

Answer 8

• Performed an ethnographic study which explores the effect that social media is having on social relationships between friends and family members. In his study of Facebook in Trinidad and Tobago, Miller uses a number of individual narratives.
• Describes how in Trinidad, the word friending means to have sex with someone in a non-marital relationship.
• Things are now more visible online, to find out about an affair.
• Concludes that Facebook allows people to maintain traditional social networking, however, this contradicts the finding of the general idea that there is a tendency towards less communication between people.

Question 9

Howards (2011):

Answer 9

• Found a virtual church built for an online network of Christians, who embraced a common ideology.
• Study entitled Digital Jesus, shows how like-minded people created argued web of religious communication on the internet. Leading to the creation of a new type of religious movement, one without a central leader or intuition.