Social Information Processing Theory

I have met people on-line, and it is very different from meeting people face to face. Ever since I became familiar with the Internet, I became fascinated with chat rooms, and recently Web sites like www.facebook.com. These Web sites sort of entranced me and hurt the face-to-face communication I had with certain people. CMC is growing at fast rates and it gave me the opportunity to meet people that I would never meet in my life. Face-to-face communication limited the people I could meet, but getting to know someone took less time. But with CMC I could put my best attributes forward but at the same time, limit the things I wanted people to know about me. CMC took 10 times longer for me to get to know people and to be more hyper personal. In the movie Perfect Stranger a woman met a man on-line who was married, but was cheating by talking to other women online. He met one of the ladies he had an on-line relationship with, and soon after, she was killed. One of the women he had a relationship with thought he was a killer. There are many movies that play on the theme like that of the Perfect Stranger, but this type of thing has happened to many women and men in real life. I have watched many episodes of America’s Most Wanted and have seen women open themselves up to men on-line and eventually in person; only to have that man be a killer… the rest is a sad, but deadly history. Having relationships on-line can be a safe route to prevent a previous hurt heart, but if taking too far, can end in tragedy. It’s sad but some people are actually sought out to be killed, and engaging in tragic on-line relationships are to blame for many deaths. Now, I don’t communicate on-line like I used to, and seeing how things are going in the world of Internet, I am glad I slowed down.