CMC and online dating ( Ch. 11)

After reading about CMC and how it affects relationships when it comes to online dating, I decided to kind of compare the theory to my friend's online dating experience. With face-to-face communication, it gives a relationship a chance to develop vivid interpretations of each party and form a more personal connection. One reason why Walther may feel that face-to-face relationships build faster is because these people have the ability to form these personal relationships with each other. With online communication it makes sense why someone would be able to develop a relationship at a because all of the nonverbal cues are missing. People have to wait to form their personal relationship because they are waiting on e-mail or instant messaging communication. They cannot develop interpersonal impressions until they have all of the information they need. One of my girlfriends recently tried out e-Harmony to find a romantic connection with someone, she agreed with Walther's theory. She found that when she would go on actual dates with men, it was a lot easier to communicate with them and form a certain impression of them after long conversation. Information was passed a lot easier and quicker. However, when she would communciate with men through e-Harmony, she found that it was a lot harder to form a cerain impression about these men just based on the information they gave her. She had to continually communicate with them in order to get the information she needed in order to form an impression and decide if she wanted to continue in the relationship or not. I do not feel that either form of communication is better. It does seem that they both help relationships develop, just at different rates.