This collection of readings analyze communication issues of ongoing importance in relationships including deception, disclosure, identity, influence, perception, privacy, sexual fidelity, and social support. The book examines subjects that attract intense student interest – including online performance of gender, online dating, and using computer-mediated communication to achieve family/work life balance – and will inspire further research and course development in the area of computer-mediated communication in personal relationships. Because it provides a synthesis of ideas at the nexus of interpersonal communication theory and computer-mediated communication theory, the book can serve as a textbook for advanced undergraduate as well as graduate courses.
Preface. Kevin B. Wright & Lynne M. Webb
PART 1: The Influence of Technology on How Relational PartnersCommunicate Online
1. A Functional Approach to Social Networking Sites 3
Erin M. Bryant, Jennifer Marmo, & Artemio Ramirez, Jr.
Jeffrey T. Child & Sandra Petronio
3. A New Twist on Love’s Labor: Self-Presentation in Online Dating Profiles 41
Catalina L. Toma & Jeffrey T. Hancock
4. Microchannels and CMC: Short Paths to Developing, 56
Maintaining, and Dissolving Relationships
Deborah Ballard-Reisch, Bobby Rozzell, Lou Heldman, & David Kamerer
PART 2: Processes and Goals in Computer-Mediated Communication
in Personal Relationships
in Online and Face-to-face Relationships
W. Scott Sanders & Patricia Amason
6. Relational Maintenance and CMC 98
Stephanie Tom Tong & Joseph B. Walther
7. Locating Computer-Mediated Social Support 119
Within Online Communication Environments
Andrew C. High & Denise H. Solomon
8. Personal Relationships and Computer-Mediated Support Groups 137
Kevin B. Wright & Ahlam Muhtaseb
9. Online Self-Disclosure: A Review of Research 156
Jinsuk Kim & Kathryn Dindia
10. Multicommunicating and Episodic Presence: 181
Developing New Constructs for Studying New Phenomena
Jeanine Warisse Turner & N. Lamar Reinsch, Jr
.11. The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same:
The Role of ICTs in Work and Family Connections 194
Paige P. Edley & Renée Houston PART 3: Influences of CMC on Relational Contexts
12. CMC and the Conceptualization of “Friendship”:
How Friendships Have Changed with the Advent
of New Methods of Interpersonal Communication 225
Amy Janan Johnson & Jennifer A. H. Becker
13. A Cross-Contextual Examination of Technologically Mediated
Communication and Social Presence in Long-Distance Relationships 244
Katheryn C. Maguire & Stacey L. Connaughton
14. Healthcare Provider-Recipient Interactions:
Is “Online” Interaction the Next Best Thing to Being There? 266
Theodore A. Avtgis, E. Phillips Polack, Sydney M. Staggers,
& Susan M. Wieczorek
PART 4: The Dark Side of Computer-Mediated Communication
in Personal Relationships
15. Family Imbalance and Adjustment to Information 285
16. Online Performances of Gender: Blogs, Gender-Bending,
and Cybersex as Relational Exemplars 302
Mark L. Hans, Brittney D. Selvidge, Katie A. Tinker, & Lynne M. Webb
17. Digital Deception in Personal Relationships 324
Norah E. Dunbar & Matthew Jensen
18. Speculating about Spying on MySpace and Beyond:
Social Network Surveillance and Obsessive Relational Intrusion 344
Makenzie Phillips & Brian H. Spitzberg
19. Problematic Youth Interactions Online:
Solicitation, Harassment, and Cyberbullying 368
Andrew R. Schrock & danah boyd
Kevin B. Wright (PhD, University of Oklahoma) is Professor in Communication at the University of Oklahoma. His research examines interpersonal communication, social support related to health outcomes, and computer-mediated relationships. He coauthored Health Communication in the 21st Century, and his research appears in over 45 book chapters and journal articles, including the Journal of Communication, Communication Monographs, the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Communication Quarterly, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Health Communication, and the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
Lynne M. Webb (PhD, University of Oregon) is Professor in Communication at the University of Arkansas. She previously served as a tenured faculty member at the Universities of Florida and Memphis. Her research examines young adults’ interpersonal communication in romantic and family contexts. Her research appears in over 50 essays published in scholarly journals and edited volumes, including Computers in Human Behavior, Communication Education, Health Communication, and Journal of Family Communication.
2. Unpacking the Paradoxes of Privacy in CMC Relationships