Virtual relationships in social media:

Question 1

virtual relationships in social media

Answer 1

common to develop relationships by communicating through social media
psychologists are interested in why online relationships seem to disclose more and develop intimacy sooner than in real life

Question 2

what are the 3 things that makes it easier to disclose more and develop intimacy sooner in a virtual relationship?

Answer 2

absence of gating mechanisms
reduced cue theories
anonymity
hyperpersonal model

Question 3

explain how absence of gating mechanisms may lead to intimacy developing sooner

Answer 3

communicating through the internet removes a number of factors that normally act as barriers stopping interactions in face-to-face encounters e.g. physical attractiveness, speech defects, age group, different social or ethnic background

Question 4

explain how reduced cue theories may lead to intimacy developing sooner

Answer 4

computers lack features of face-to-face communication like non verbal communication e.g. facial expressions
may result in people reading too much into what they type

Question 5

explain how anonymity may lead to intimacy developing sooner

Answer 5

deindividuation results in a reduction of feelings of responsibility, leading to loss of inhibition
people can say things they would never do in real life
this 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 and trolling

Question 6

explain how the hyperpersonal model may lead to intimacy developing sooner

Answer 6

Walther 1996 explained how people can manipulate their online identity significantly and control interactions to display a hyper honest or hyper dishonest version of themselves

Question 7

research evidence supporting virtual relationships

Answer 7

Smith and Duggan conducted a large scale survey of 2000 American participants into online dating

found that online dating is becoming more acceptable
53% of people agreed that it allows people to find a better match and get to know more people
when asked reasons for using online dating: 60% said to find people with similar hobbies, 52% said to find people with same beliefs and values
54% of internet daters felt like however someone misrepresented themselves in their profile

suggests that people see the internet to overcome gates by getting to know more people through self disclosure but some are able to take advantage of the hyperpersonal model by producing a dishonest version of themselves

+: McKenna demonstrated that people were able to express themselves more online
70% of relationships formed online survived compared to 50% in real-life

Question 8

evaluations of virtual relationships

Answer 8

• lack temporal validity as video now allows more rich non-verbal communication
  + allow people to access relationships who would usually be blocked due to gating which reduces loneliness - economic implications
• dependence of VR may lead to negative social consequences - FTF communication gets worse due to lack of reading non-verbal communication cues
• cannot be generalised - different virtual environments may produce different amounts of self-disclosure e.g. gaming sites produce more self-disclosure as it is less likely you will meet them compared to dating site
• doesn’t consider other forms of non-verbal communication like emojis and time spent between responding to messages
• cultural differences - koreans show less trust when talking to someone online meaning self-disclosure is less