Relationships -Virtual Relationships in Social Media Flashcards
What are researchers interested in?
Why people disclose more and develop intimacy sooner in online communications.
What are absence of gating mechanisms?
Communicating through the internet removes factors that normally act as filters when interacting in face-to-face encounters e.g. attractiveness, speech defects.
What are reduced cue theories?
Non-verbal communications, e.g. body language, is missing.
This could result in people misinterpreting a text/ reading too much into typed communication.
What’s anonymity?
Leads to de-individuation, reduced feelings of responsibility, lowers inhibition.
People can say things online that they wouldn’t face-to-face. This results in feelings of intimacy but also sexting and trolling.
What’s the hyper-personal model?
When people manipulate their online identity, appearing hyper-honest or hyper-dishonest.
They do this by carefully controlling interactions.
AO3: Research to support absence of gating
P: McKenna and Barge.
E: Looked online at communication by shy, lonely, social anxious people.
E: They found these people were able to express their ‘true selves’ more virtually than in face to face communications. 71% of these relationships formed online survived at least 2 years in comparison to shy people in the outside world.
L: This allows shy people to benefit online providing further support for virtual relationships in social media.
AO3: Lack of face to face communication
P: Lack of face to face communication can lead to difficulty developing real-life relationships.
E: Due to lack of social skills.
E: Increased anxiety rates, social awkwardness, etc.
L: Limits how much online relationships should be encouraged.
AO3: Lack of temporal validity
P: Research into virtual relationships was conducted using self-report methods (e.g. questionnaires, interviews).
E: Prone to social desirability bias.
E: Ppts may have lied about frequency, breadth and depth of their self-disclosures.
L: Reduces internal validity and overall support for virtual relationships in social media.
