Virtual Relationships: Evaluate

Question 1

The importance of the internet for romantic relationships:

Rosenfeld and Thomas (2012)

Answer 1

showed it’s importance in forming and maintaining relationships; found that participants who had internet access at home were more likely to be partnered and thus 71.8% had a spouse/romantic partner

but for those who didn’t have a internet access, only 35.9% had a partner

thus the internet may be displacing rather than complementing the traditional ways of meeting a partner

Question 2

Virtual relationships can be as strong as offline relationships:
Putnam (2000)
Rosenfeld and Thomas (2012)

Answer 2

P: it’s often claimed that internet communication often leads to superficial relationships unlike offline ones e.g. weaker and more temporary

R&T: found no evidence of this, they found no difference in the quality of online and offline relationships. Online relationships weren’t more fragile

Question 3

Facebook helps shy people have better quality friendships:

Baker and Oswald (2010)

Answer 3

argue that virtual relationships are helpful to shy people allowing them to overcome social barriers.

they surveyed participants about their shyness, fb usage and quality of their friendships

those who scored high for shyness, had a greater use of fb and higher perceptions of friendship quality (opposite for low shyness)

Question 4

Virtual relationships have consequences for offline relationships:
Zhao et al (2008)

Answer 4

claims that we shouldn’t think of the online and offline world as completely separate because online relationships have CONSEQUENCES for people’s offline lives

e.g. developing virtual relationships allows he/she to bypass gating obstacles and create an identity that they wouldn’t be able to create in the offline world

Z: claims that these ‘digital selves’ can then enhance the individual’s overall self image increasing connections in the offline world