• Question: how to do you feel that online relationships are impacted to by the self disclosure theory? do you feel that people get the same things out of it?

    Asked by anon-204919 to Sally, Dan on 5 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sally Tilt

      Sally Tilt answered on 5 Mar 2019:


      That’s an interesting question – and it is an interesting concept that people seem to move to more intimate levels of self-disclosure more quickly in an online context than face to face. If you don’t mind – I’m actually going to use a time machine (i.e. going back in time!) to highlight a quirk that I have noticed about life for men and women in prisons. People living in prisons are generally unable to use the internet or send emails – it is probably one of the few places which are wifi free in the country! It is also not straightforward to use the telephone – you might need to queue for quite a long time to use the phone in many prisons, and you have a conversation on a wing where others might hear.

      As a result, prisons are one of the last places where people write a lot of letters to their friends and family. I have discussed this with people in prison. They have commented that they find that they argue less with their family when they are in prison – in part because writing a letter gives them time to avoid impulsively blurting things out – and a chance to cross it out if they regret a statement. Writing a letter also gives time to talk about how you are feeling, and some people find this easier to write down than to say out loud.

      Perhaps there are some links with the speed of online disclosure and the less modern method of letter writing!

    • Photo: Dan Taylor

      Dan Taylor answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      I think online communication can be a bit of a double edged sword with things like self disclosure. Often it makes it easier to divulge information at a faster rate and makes it easier to deal with rejection – don’t need to worry if they don’t like it if you’ve never even met. But on the flipside I think there’s issues surrounding things like catfishing and online fraud which can make people more cautious about providing some aspect of information. In another post I mentioned that I am a bit of a technophobe, so I do tend to stay away from tech stuff where possible!

Comments