Erin filled out a personality profile to an online dating site whimsically at the provocation of a friend. It was mere hours before Chris, an experienced online dater sent her an IM. Though curt in her first replies, she soon opened up to him and their relationship grew over IM, emails, photo exchanging and phone calls. Sprinkle in a rondevue off the web and two months of incubation (dating) and the couple was engaged-- married within a year.
Over the course of the semester, we've developed many models for how relationships develop online. The hyperpersonal model for instance says that in mediated communication like emails, there are fewer social context cues upon which to base assumptions about a communication parter. This lack of cues lead to exagerations in perception. A slightly cheerful person may seem extremely bubbly online-- a sarcastic individual very negative. Also, the ability to selectively self-present by filtering information about oneself online only seeks to further these exaggerations of truths, as observers are given less cues about other aspects of a targets life or personality. But, what happens when the relationship moves offline?
In terms of Erin and Chris, if we view them in light of the this hyperpersonal model, we can assume that their self representations were skewed to reveal their fairer qualities and that their perceptions of one another were exagerrated (to the better, since they did agree to meet offline). Once, they move offline the gaps created by selective self-presentation and reduced social context cues would be filled in. Since we assume that they must have held eachother in high regard online, wouldn't we then find that their perceptions of eachother would be deflated once they met offline? According to the hyperpersonal model, this would in fact hold true. However, we know Erin and Chris began actively dating after meeting face-to-face. In fact, Chris even says, "She was prettier than I remembered from the picture" (meaning one shared online). Their relationship flourished where the hyperpersonal model might have predicted floundering.
Note: Berger & Calabrese's Uncertainty Reduction Theory holds more true here, because indeed these two seemed to have benefitted from information shared online, so when they met offline it was like they already knew one another intimately. Their attraction was greater.
An article about Erin and Chris's love and online dating can be found here.
http://news.research.ohiou.edu/perspectives/archives/0402/love.html
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1 comment:
Hi,
I like your post. It is true that the hyperpersonal model does not seem to fit. As you mention, the hyperpersonal model would predict that their relationship would deteriorate when they met face to face as reality does not match up to their inflated impressions.
Instead, uncertainty reduction theory seems to be a better match. Another theory that you did not mention that might fit is social information processing theory. Here, it seems as though they got a pretty good idea of each other's personality online and therefore were not caught off guard when they met offline. Great post overall
Danielle
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