Virtual Relationships in Social Media

What are the 2 elements of virtual relationships?

Self disclosure and absence of gating

What are the 2 theories about self disclosure for virtual relationships?

Reduced cues and hyperpersonal model

What is Reduced cues theory?

Virtual relationships are less effective due to a lack of cues found in FtF relationships (non verbal cues e.g. expressions and tone).

What does reduced cues lead to?

Reduces sense of identity and leads to disinhibition and feel free to communicate in more blunt/aggressive ways which in turn makes other people uncomfortable and untrusting.

What is the Hyperpersonal model?

Relationships can lead to more self disclosure and develop quicker becoming more intimate.

What are the 2 features of Hyperpersonal self disclosure?

• greater control over what is disclosed (selective self presentation) and the sender manipulates their self image

• the receiver is impressed and gives positive feedback reinforcing the sender’s selective self presentation

What can selective self presentation lead to?

Hyper-honesty or hyper-dishonesty

What final thing does Hyperpersonal model explain?

Anonymity where a person feels less accountable for behaviour in front of strangers.

What is a gate?

Any obstacle to forming a relationship that interfere with development e.g appearance, anxiety, location etc

What are the benefits of an absence of gates?

• self disclosure is more frequent as there is no focus of superficial features

• people feel more comfortable to be their true self

What is a drawback of absence of gates?

People may form false identities and deceive people

Strengths

• Support for absence of gating - anxious people can find love online. McKenna and Bargh found that anxious people were more expressive online and their relationships lasted longer

• Support for difference in self disclosure - Whitty and Joinson found that questions asked were more direct and people invent their personalities

Limitations

• Existence of cues online - cues can still exist just look different online such as speed of messaging, style of texts and acronyms which shows subtle nuances do exist just like FtF

• Challenging research for Hyperpersonal model - Ruppel’s meta analysis found that frequency, breadth and depth were greater in FtF relationships and others found that there was no difference in self disclosure