Interpersonal Communication
on the Internet
Chapter 8
Human Communication on the Internet
Shedletsky & Aitken
How does the Internet Affect
Interpersonal Relationships?
• Creating interpersonal relationships online;
• Feeling part of a community online;
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
Interpersonal Communication
• Interpersonal communication is one-to-
one communication;
• Interpersonal communication face-to-face
or online;
• Computer-mediated communication is
closest to interpersonal communication;
Within the Perspective of
Interpersonal Communication
• Personal contexts;
• Individual purposes;
• Flaming;
• Identity;
• Story-telling;
• Online relationships;
• Relational stages;
Community Online
• Community online is the ability of people
to come together, to have a sense of
sharing and commonality in an online
environment;
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?
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);
Social Uses of the Internet
• To meet people and create relationships;
• To enhance relationships with family and
friends;
• To maintain long-distance relationships;
Some Effects of Interpersonal
Communication Online
• Computer-mediated communication is similar to
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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;
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;
Effects of Speed, Reach,
Anonymity, Regard and Interactivity
• We expect our communication technologies to
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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;
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 frustrated—to feel rage at times;
Flaming
• Flaming refers to harsh language directed at an
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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”;
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;
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 online—
e.g., flaming;
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;
Some ways Family Members can
Use the Computer
• To provide communication content;
• To increase human interplay;
• To improve individual’s self-esteem;
• To enable new opportunities for
interpersonal relationships;
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;
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;
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;
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;
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;