VARYING DEFINITIONS OF ONLINE COMMUNICATION


(2002). Self-disclosure and intimacy may result from IM’s individualized features, which are not as personalized in email correspondence. Demographic limitations. In addition to the limitations of email, Cummings et


al. (2002) reviewed studies that focused on international bank employees and college students (see Appendix B for demographic information). It is possible the participants’ CMC through email was used primarily for business, professional, and school matters and not for relationship creation or maintenance. In this case, personal self-disclosure and intimacy levels are expected to be lower for non-relationship interactions, as this communication is primarily between boss and employee or student and professor. Intimacy is not required, or even desired, for these professional relationships. Modality limitations. Instead of professional correspondence, however, Cummings et al.’s (2002) review of the HomeNet project focused on already established relationships and CMC’s effect on relationship maintenance. The HomeNet researchers’ sole dependence on email communication as CMC may have contributed to the lower levels of intimacy and closeness among Internet relationships as compared to non-Internet relationships (as cited in Cummings et al., 2002). The barriers of non- personal communication in email could be a factor in this project, and this could lead to less intimacy among these Internet partners. If alternate modalities of CMC were studied in both already established and professional relationships, perhaps these results would have resembled those of the previously mentioned research.


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