Chapter 10 Social Information Processing Theory

The Social Processing Theory talks about the idea of forming relationships over the internet. In class we talked about starting a relationship in SIP and other aspects of it. After going home and thinking about the ideas of forming relationships over the internet, I have new feelings about it. For the longest time I always thought that online relationships were never really complete relationships, I always felt that in order for a relationship to be true it would need to eventually be a face-to-face relationship. However, after discusing this theory, learning more about what a relationship actually is, and hearing some examples in class, my feelings have some what changed. The example of the web site that offers one the opportuniy of having a cyber girlfriend may be a some what rediculous concept, but it does seem that by definition, it could actually be considered a relationship. I personaly have never had an online relationship before, aside from long distance friends who I stay in contact with throught the internet, which I guess, could be considered an online realtionship. Overall, I feel that after going over the three steps of how to start relationships and then looking at actual relationships that fit this, I am more convinced that it is possible to have a true online relationship.