Interpersonal attraction/self-disclosure online

What are the elements needed for a meaningful relationship?

Intentional self-disclosure, channel richness and real-time presence, active feedback loops, overcoming missing cues, relational maintenance and frequency

Matching hypothesis

More likely to succeed in a relationship with someone who’s socially desirable

Alliance hypothesis

People’s feelings about friends are based on what the friends think of them

People value those who value them above others

Less impressed with people who value us (rank us) less

Dimensions of self-disclosure

Depth, breadth, honesty, intent, valence

What is the social penetration model?

What’s really needed in a relationship is disclosure or sharing information

Self-disclosure is the conduit for developing relationship closeness

• Revealing personal or private information

• Includes both breadth and depth

The core

Values, self-concept, emotions

Personality

Beliefs, faith, prejudices

The public self

Height, weight, gender

Private meaning

Interpersonal, closed-loop interactions between specific individuals or small, selected groups rather than broadcast or public messaging

Code switching

How multilingual Internet users alternate between two or more languages, dialects, or digital styles within text, social media, messaging apps, and online forums

Binary friends

Shapes how friends connect, form attachments, and maintain relationships without FtF cues

Gender binaries in online language/identity and binary data/technical constraints versus binary/dichotomous models of social interaction

Context collapse

The flattening of multiple distinct social audiences into a single, undifferentiated group

Breadth

The variety of topics discussed

Depth

How intimate the information is, are you going into a lot of detail

Depth

How intimate the information is, are you going into a lot of detail

Intent

Why am I disclosing information, getting to know someone, impression management  

Valence

The emotional quality embedded within a digital message interaction, or stimulus

Types of ties

Strong, weak, absent, latent