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This article highlights the psychological implications of the change from traditional or face-to-face relationships to computer mediated relationships (CMR), especially focusing on the romantic contexts. At first I wasn’t sure how relevant this piece would be to social networks, but the way in which relationships, romantic or not, function on the Internet versus face-to-face illustrates interesting changes in the way people interact and form a conception of self. The article begins by pointing out the one salient characteristic in both kinds of relationships: people like relationships that give them rewards. Other than that similarity, the two types of relationships really are inherently different, for reasons that one would expect (the importance of spatiality, physicality, self-disclosure). The rest of the article is more instructional for psychologists who are treating patients that are orienting themselves in this new world of complex relationships, so it is not useful for this discussion. I found the discussion of face-to-face versus computer mediated relationships to be the most useful section of the article.
The article points out that the sequence of meeting someone is inverted on the Internet: it is not the physical that comes first, then attitudinal connection, then intimate disclosure, but the other way around. This model is challenged in interesting ways when applied to social networks of today, which create a fusion of CMRs and face-to-face relationships. A person might meet someone briefly, Facebook “friend” them, and then learn more about them online through their profile and chatting, only meeting again weeks afterwards. Ideally, face-to-face interaction will be complemented and enhanced by the addition of virtual relationships, which is the ultimate goal of social networking sites like facebook.com which rely on existing connections to establish a person’s network. However, it becomes more complicated when a person's creates expectations from a face-to-face meeting and is then disappointmented when he "meets" the person in the virtual world (or the other way around).
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tagged computer_mediated_relationships online_dating psychology social_networks by rachee ...on 10-MAR-07
tagged computer_mediated_relationships online_dating psychology social_networks by rachee ...on 10-MAR-07