Virtual relationships in social media
Specification: Virtual relationships in social media: self-disclosure in virtual relationships; effect of absence of gating on the nature of virtual relationships.
During the last decade, social media has become an important part of everyday life. Websites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have millions of people logging in every day; many individuals communicate daily with people with whom they have never met face-to-face.
The prominence of virtual relationships in people's life has made it a fascinating topic for psychologists to study; even more so as initial research suggests that the nature of online communication is distinctly different from our social interactions in real life.
Virtual Relationships in Social Media
Social psychologists suggest that nature of virtual relationships is very close to the 'stranger on the train' phenomenon, described by Rubin (1975). He suggests that we are more likely to share personal information with a stranger because we are likely never to see them again.
Sproull and Kiesler (1986) suggested that online relationships might be less open and honest than face-to-face ones, because in real life we rely on subtle cues, such as facial expressions and tone of voice; these cues are absent in virtual communications (Reduced Cues Theory). According to this theory, the reduction in communication cues leads to de-individuation because it diminishes people's feelings of individual identity and brings on behaviours that people usually restrain themselves from displaying in face-to-face interactions, such as aggression. This may make online communications more aggressive, and the consequence of this is less self-disclosure from other people, as they fear becoming the victim of verbal violence.
Another difference between online and face-to-face interactions is absence of gating. In real life, our attraction to other people is greatly influenced by their appearance, mannerisms and factors such as age and ethnicity, limiting our choice of potential partners. In virtual interactions, however, these barriers ('gates') are absent; this creates more opportunities for shy and less attractive people to develop romantic relationships. Even when these factors are discovered later, when the relationship moves from the virtual to the face-to-face phase, they rarely decrease an already-developed attraction, as a result of the feeling of intimacy brought by more open self-disclosure. The absence of gating also means that people can establish virtual identities they could never create face-to-face, for example a shy person can personify an outgoing and extraverted disposition.
Self-Disclosure in Virtual Relationships
One prominent difference between face-to-face and virtual relationships is the fact that self-disclosure in virtual relationships tends to occur at a much faster rate. This is thought the be the result of the anonymity associated with online relationships; people tend to hold off disclosing personal information in real life for fear of ridicule or rejection, unless they are confident that they can trust the person and that information will not be leaked to mutual friends. However, there is much less risk of this happening in online virtual relationships, so people can share personal experiences and thoughts without much risk of the intimate information getting to the people they know. Whitty and Joinson’s (2009) research demonstrates the effect of a virtual environment on self-disclosure. They discovered that in online discussion forums both questions and answers tend to be more direct, probing and intimate than in everyday face-to-face interactions.
Walther (1996, 2011) proposed the Hyperpersonal Model of virtual relationships, suggesting that, as self-disclosure in online relationships happens earlier than in face-to-face ones, relationships quickly become more intense and feel more intimate and meaningful. Conversely, they tend to also end more quickly, as it is difficult to sustain the same level of intense self-disclosure for an extended time period. Walther also suggests that virtual relationships may feel more intimate because it is easier to manipulate self-disclosure online than face-to-face. Participants in online conversation have more time to 'edit' their responses to present themselves in a more positive light; Walther calls this 'selective self-presentation'. Projecting a positive image will then make an online partner want to disclose more personal information, increasing the intensity and feelings of intimacy towards the relationship.
Research Examining Virtual Relationships
Furthermore, Rosenfeld and Thomas (2012) showed the importance of online communication for developing romantic relationships. They investigated whether there was a link between having internet access at home and being involved in a romantic relationship. Out of 4,000 participants studied, 71.8% of those with internet access were married or had a romantic partner, compared to only 35.9% of those without internet access. These findings suggest that a virtual environment helps people to establish and maintain romantic relationships.
Baker and Oswald (2010) suggest that the absence of gating in virtual relationships may be particularly useful for shy people. They asked 207 male and female participants to complete a questionnaire, scoring their answers in terms of shyness, internet use and perception of quality of their friendships. They found that those people who scored highly on shyness and internet use, perceived the quality of their friendships as high; this correlation was absent for people with low shyness scores. The findings imply that as online communication helps people to overcome their shyness, so the quality of their face-to-face communication also improves.
Hollenbaugh and Everett (2013)
Aim: To investigate virtual relationships in social media.
Method: Bloggers were recruited as participants via an advertisement placed online by the researchers. Of the 243 respondents, 154 of the volunteer bloggers met the criteria for the study of being over 18 years of age. A content analysis was conducted on five blogs which had been recently posted including any images, video footage or hyperlinks attached to them. Inter-rater reliability was established by correlating results.
Results: Results suggest that younger bloggers engaged in deeper and more revealing self-disclosures online than older bloggers. Furthermore, female bloggers were found to self-disclose more personal information than their male counterparts.
The results also revealed that visual anonymity had an inverse relationship with self-disclosure: bloggers who posted more pictures of themselves actually disclosed more information than those who did not.
Conclusion: These finding provide some support for the notion of self-disclosure in online relationships and suggests that people may disclose more personal information online than they do offline. However, the results also suggest that this might not be due to the anonymity, as the people who disclosed the most information actually removed their anonymity by posting pictures and videos of themselves. While a person’s anonymity may have been removed, it is important to note that individuals can still carefully create and edit the information they present and engage in ‘selective self-presentation’.
Evaluation of Virtual Relationships
Self-disclosure online has been shown to vary depending on the type of computer mediated communication being used. Paine et al. (2006) suggest that the degree of self-disclosure depends on whether a website user anticipates the information becoming available to a wider audience or just to close friends. In the first case, people present an 'edited' version of themselves, trying to create a socially desirable identity. In the second case, however, people are willing to disclose more personal information, as they are relatively confident in their friends' acceptance. This, therefore, contradicts the claim that gating is absent in all virtual relationships, as there is the possibility that information can become publicly available which may reduce the quantity and quality of self-disclosure.
There is an argument that face-to-face relationships can also have a virtual element to them. Lenhart and Duggan (2014) studied Americans in long-term relationships or marriages and their use of telecommunications in their partnership. They found that 25% of participants had texted their partners when they were, in fact, at home together at the time. 21% of those surveyed about their mobile phone use said that it had helped them to feel closer to their partner, especially in instances where they had a disagreement to resolve. However, 8% of people in long-term romantic relationship said that their partnership had suffered due to their spouse’s virtual relationships online with other people. This means that relationships in real life can be affected, positively and negatively, by virtual communications between the two partners and other third parties.
 An issue with studying virtual relationship in social media is that it is affected by changes in a fast-paced society. Most of the research examining virtual relationships was conducted in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As technology is changing rapidly, so is the nature of online relationships. Therefore, psychological research in this area risks becoming outdated by the time it is published. This lowers the temporal validity of research into online relationships, meaning that the findings may not necessarily apply to the current situation.
Extension Evaluation: Issues & Debates
Research into virtual relationships is based on the experiences of mainly Western, technologically developed cultures. Internet technology is not readily available in some countries, so the conclusions about the development and effects of virtual communication on romantic relationships cannot be applied to them. In addition, attitudes to self-disclosure are different in different cultures. For example, Nakanishi (1986) found that, in contrast to American culture, women in Japan preferred lower levels of self-disclosure in close relationships. This demonstrates that the level of self-disclosure depends on cultural norms and may affect the communication styles online. This lowers the validity of research into virtual relationships, limiting the range of relationships it explains.
There are also important gender differences in virtual relationships. McKenna et al. (2002) found that women tended to rate their relationships formed online as more intimate and valued self-disclosure, especially in terms of emotion, in comparison to men. Men, on the other hand, preferred activities based disclosure (such as common interests in motorsports) and rated their online relationships as less close than face-to-face ones. This suggests that research into online relationships may show alpha-bias, as it assumes that males' and females' experiences on virtual relationships are different. However, it could be that male and female experiences of virtual relationships are similar and there are methodological issues with the research in this area that exaggerate the differences (e.g. the choice of interview/questionnaires as a research tool).
Possible Exam Questions
Define what is meant by the term 'gating' in relation to virtual relationships. (2 marks)
Briefly outline what is meant by a ‘virtual relationship’. (2 marks)
A psychologist decided to investigate relationships between shyness and success of romantic relationships initiated online and offline, measured by whether or not a couple was still together two years after the relationship started.
a. Explain why the researcher decided to propose a directional hypothesis for their study. (2 marks)
b. The researcher set the level of statistical significance at 5%. What is the chance of the researcher making a Type I error? (1 mark)
c. State a suitable sampling method for this study. Explain how the researcher could obtain their sample. (3 marks)
Describe the effect that the absence of gating has on virtual relationships. (4 marks)
Alex is very shy and finds it difficult to initiate conversations with other people face-to-face. However, when participating in discussions on his favourite forum he feels much more confident and has no problems expressing his opinions and asking questions. He became friends on Facebook with some of the forum members and is comfortable with disclosing some personal information to them.
Using your knowledge of virtual relationships, explain Alex’s behaviour. (4 marks)
Describe what research has shown about self-disclosure in virtual relationships. (4 marks)
Explain one limitation of research into virtual relationships in social media. (4 marks)
Discuss virtual relationships in social media. (8 marks)
With reference to self-disclosure and the absence of gating, discuss research into virtual relationships. (16 marks)