Online Interpersonal Relationships

920 Words4 Pages
Over the years, Internet has impacted all of us in many different ways. Whether this impact is through our social lives or through our professional lives, it has had little to great impacts. These impacts have been both positive for some and negative for others but it has advanced us in many ways and has helped to even bring our society together online. CMC has impacted all of our interpersonal relationships without us even realizing it. There are many positives and negatives when it comes to the impact CMC have on the initiation, maintenance, dissolution, and quality of interpersonal relationships. When it comes to the initiation of interpersonal relationships, Barnes states, “People need to meet other people and make friends. The Internet can help meet this need by enabling people to make both professional and social connections through CMC” (Barnes 2003). A negative is that “the Internet can replace face-to-face encounters and the telephone as a way to stay in touch with friends and family” (Barnes 2003). When it comes to the quality of interpersonal relationships through CMC a positive trait is that people in online relationships are perceived as more structured and less spontaneous (Barnes 2003). The negative to this is that when their relationship becomes face-to-face, it may not be as structured and their relationship may lack several things such as a real closeness and understanding of each other. A positive thing about maintaining a relationship through CMC is that it can be easier because you can get on the Internet anywhere and respond or interact with a person. The negative side of it is that you aren’t taking in any memories or special moments with that person because you are only communicating through written language with that person. The positives and negatives can very on the impact CMC has on interpersonal relationships.
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