Interpersonal Communication on the Internet

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Interpersonal Communication on the Internet

• Chapter 8
• Human Communication on the Internet
• Shedletsky Aitken

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How does the Internet affect interpersonal
relationships?

• Creating interpersonal relationships online
• Feeling part of a community online

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Interpersonal Dynamics Online

• Speed
• the time it takes to send and receive messages
• Anonymity
• refers to identities created online, claiming to
  be someone you are not
• Interactivity
• the ability of online participants to not only
  receive messages, but to react to them
• Regard
• to be acknowledged as an individual

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Interpersonal Communication

• Interpersonal communication is one-to-one
  communication
• Interpersonal communication face-to-face or
  online
• Computer-mediated communication is closest to
  interpersonal communication

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Within the Perspective of Interpersonal
Communication

• Personal contexts
• Individual purposes
• Flaming
• Identity
• Story-telling
• Online relationships
• Relational stages

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Community Online

• Community online is the ability of people to come
  together, to have a sense of sharing and
  commonality in an online environment

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Will Online Interpersonal Communication Enhance
or Attentuate Human Relationships?

• Online relationships often include fantasy,
  stereotypical, idealized images
• Will time online substitute for other forms of
  communication?

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Enhancement or Attenuation
One study finds that the Internet intensifies
dispositions toward sociability or community
involvement (DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman, and
Robinson (2001)

• Another study finds that use of the Internet
  is influenced by local culture and power
  relations (Wheeler, 2001)

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Social Uses of the Internet

• To meet people and create relationships
• To enhance relationships with family and friends
• To maintain long-distance relationships

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Some Effects of Interpersonal Communication Online

• Computer-mediated communication is similar to
  face-to-face communication, and may even affect
  how people communicate face-to-face
• There is often a casual sense of play in Internet
  communication
• There are often paradoxes associated with
  Internet communication
• Certain aspects of communication are intensified
  by Internet use

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Some Effects of Interpersonal Communication Online

• Internet communication strongly engages
  intrapersonal communication
• The process of attaching meaning to the message
  is evident in online communication

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Effects of Speed, Reach, Anonymity, Regard and
Interactivity

• We expect our communication technologies to be
  fast
• We are becoming obsessed with efficiency
• In spite of all the speed in communication
  technologies, many people feel they are running
  on a tread mill and cannot keep up with all that
  is coming at them

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Reach

• In addition to your ability to reach others,
  reach also means that you can be reached just
  about anytime, anywhere
• Some speculate that the sense of constant
  connectedness, the speed of our messages, and the
  difficulty of keeping up with all the information
  reaching us, causes people to feel nervous and
  frustratedto feel rage at times

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Flaming

• Flaming refers to harsh language directed at an
  individual online
• Scholars have speculated about the lack of social
  cues online due to the fact that generally we
  cannot see one another online, as contributing to
  flaming
• With reduced feedback, it is speculated, we can
  project our own hopes and fears
• Some believe that the reduction in social cues
  accounts for a tendency to be more disinhibited
  online, both in self disclosure and in aggression
  (the disinhibition effect

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Interactivity

• Interactivity refers to the ability to respond to
  messages so as to give feedback, e.g., flaming
  may be seen as expressing anger in speaking back

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Anonymity

• Not being identified as your self, or believing
  you are not identified as your self
• Some speculate that anonymity enhances the
  chances of expressing anger onlinee.g., flaming

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Influence on Family

• Families are affected by the Internet and the way
  they communicate on the Internet
• The computer appears to affect different family
  members differently
• Family members use the computer for
  entertainment, escape, habit, and to pass time

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Some ways Family Members can Use the Computer

• To provide communication content
• To increase human interplay
• To improve individuals self-esteem
• To enable new opportunities for interpersonal
  relationships

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Online Relationships

• Cultural differences are likely to affect
  perceptions of online communication
• According to one study, the Japanese were far
  more skeptical about the value of the Internet in
  human communication than the Americans or the
  Koreans

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Computer-Literacy Theory

• One researcher suggests that the cultural
  differences actually may be due to practical
  differences
• Computer-literacy theory points to differences
  between cultures that are differences in the ease
  of inputing the language into the computer, cost
  of online time, and the cost of competing
  technologies

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Online Dating and Relationships

• One study found that both men and women lied
  online, but for different reasons
• Women lied to protect themselves from men and men
  lied to protect their true identity so they could
  take greater risks with emotions online

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Online Dating and Relationships

• In online relationships, a person may think they
  know the other well, due to limited information
• Much of the relationship is created in the mind,
  to fill in for missing information

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Control of Information about the Self

• Some research suggests that the typical pattern
  of development of online relationships advances
  through more and more personal ways of
  communicating, with less and less control over
  the information revealed about the self