virtual relationships in social media Flashcards
what is self disclosure?
•revealing personal information about yourself, revealing more as the relationship develops
•self disclosures about one’s deepest thoughts and feelings can strengthen a romantic bond when used appropriately
what are the two main theories regarding self disclosure in virtual relationships?
•reduced cues theory
•the hyperpersonal model
what is the reduced cues theory?
•virtual relationships are less effective than face to face ones because they lack many of the cues we usually depend on
•these include cues like our appearance, facial expressions and tone of voice
•this reduces a persons sense of individual identity in virtual relationships (de-individuation), which in turn leads to disinhibition
•many people feel freer to communicate bluntly/ aggressively or they are unlikely to express their real thoughts and feelings to someone to impersonal
what is the hyperpersonal model?
•argues that virtual relationships can be more personal and involve greater self disclosure than face to face ones
•this is because virtual relationships can develop very quickly as self disclosure happens earlier, once established they are more intense and intimate
what are the two key features of hyperpersonal self-disclosure in virtual relationships?
- the sender of a message has greater control over what to disclose and what cues they send than they would in a face to face situation. this is selective self presentation, the sender manipulates their self image to be presented in an idealised way. to achieve this, self disclosures can be either hyperhonest or hyperdishonest
- the receiver gains a positive impression of the sender, they may give feedback to reinforce the senders selective self-presentation
what promotes self disclosure in online relationships?
•anonymity
•when you’re aware other people do not know your identity, you feel less accountable for your behaviour
•so you may well disclose more about yourself to a stranger than to even your most intimate partner
what is a ‘gate’?
•any obstacle to forming a relationship
•face to face interaction is gated, in that it involves many features that can interfere with the early development of a relationship
•examples of gates include physical unattractiveness, facial disfigurement, a stammer or social anxiety (shyness, blushing ect)
what is the absence of gating?
face to face relationships often fail to form because of obstacles such as physical attraction or social anxiety that people may find off putting. these barriers/ gates are absent in the virtual world allowing the relationship to begin when they might not offline
how do absences of gates work in helping the relationship?
they work by refocusing attention on self-disclosure and away from superficial and distracting features. people in virtual relationships are more interested in what their partner is saying rather than what they look like
what is a benefit of gates being absent?
•the individual gets to be more like their ‘true selves’
•can reach deeper parts of self disclosure faster
what are the limitations of the absence of gates?
•there is scope for people to create untrue identities and deceive in a way that could never be possible face to face
•a person can change their gender, age or how their personality comes across
•potential for catfishing
limitation: lack of support for reduced cues
•online nonverbal cues are different rather than absent
•Walther and Tidwell point out that people in online interactive use other cues, such as style and timing of messages
•there are nuances in virtual relationships that are just as subtle as ftf relationships
•acronyms and emojis can all be used as effective substitute for facial expressions and tone of voice
•this is hard for reduced cues theory to explain because it means virtual relationships can be just as personal as FtF ones
limitation: lack of support for the hyperpersonal model
•challenged by the findings of ruppel’s meta analysis that compared self- disclosures in ftf and virtual interactions
•they found that self report studies showed that frequency, breadth and depth of self disclosures were all greater in ftf relationships
•some studies found no difference in the levels of self disclosure
•this contradicts the view that the greater intimacy of virtual relationships should lead to more and deeper self-disclosures than in ftf relationships
counterpoint: there is evidence that ftf and virtual relationships differ in the types of self disclosure used
•whitty and joinson summarised evidence showing how self-presentation is manipulated in virtual relationships
•questions in virtual relationships tend to be more intimate (hyper honest), compared to more small talk in person
•self presentation online also has the potential to be hyperdishonest
•this supports the models claims about hyperhonest and hyperdishonest self-disclosures and show there are differences between ftf and virtual relationships
strength: support for absence of gating
•shy, lonely and anxious people find virtual relationships especially valuable
•mckenna and bargh found that socially anxious people were more able to express their ‘true selves’ online
•of the romantic relationships formed by shy people online, 71% survived at least two years
•this is compared to 49% of shy people forming relationships offline (kirkpatrick and davis)
•this suggests that shy people do benefit online presumably bevsuse the gating that obstructs ftf relationships is absent online
online vs multimodal
•the hyperpersonal model and the absence of gating theory try to explain how there is more self disclosure in virtual relationships because of things like selective self presentation
•walther argues that these theories fail to take into account that relationships are multimodal and that we conduct them both offline and online
•what we choose to disclose in virtual relationships is influenced by out offline interactions and vice versa
