College essay: Social Information Processing Theory

Social Information Processing Theory
of Joseph Walther

Review

Communication, today, has been developed by leaps and bounds. It is easy to connect with any person anywhere on the globe, provided he has the requisite technological equipments. It has helped surpass geographical borders, and also helped us know about each other’s culture. The Social Information Processing theory was invented by Joseph Walther in 1992. This theory talks about the interpersonal relationships between those individuals that are involved in CMC (computer mediated communication) interactions. It states that, it is possible for CMC users to develop affinity overtime.

Walther believes that the relationships can grow only to the extent that parties first gain information about each other to craft an impression and an intellectual image on one another. He provides a schema which illustrates this process as followed: Interpersonal information leads to impression formation which ends up in relation development. However, this theory recognizes that the information we receive depends on the communication medium or apparatus we use. Walther has provided two features of CMC that endow a relational for SIP theory: the first feature is Verbal Cues, which means that CMC users can create fully formed impressions of others based solely on linguistic content of messages. The second feature is Extended Time, which means that though the exchange of social information is slower via CMC than face-to-face, over time the relationships formed are not weaker pr more fragile.

Alongside with the above, Walther claims that human beings crave affiliation just as much they do in the online as they do in face-to-face interactions. He also points out that the length of time that CMC users have to send messages is the key determinant of whether their messages can achieve a comparable level of intimacy as face-to-face interactions. He added that chronemic cues, or nonverbal indicators of how people perceive, use or respond to issues of time, is the only nonverbal cue not filtered out of CMC, thinking that people will trade more relational messages if they think they may meet again and this anticipated future interaction motivates them to develop the relationships.

Walther uses the term Hyperpersonal to label CMC relationships that are more intimated than if partners were physically together, he classifies four types of media effects that occur precisely because CMC users aren’t proximal.  The four aspects of this media effects are: the sender, the receiver, the channel and the feedback. Furthermore, the pioneer of this theory believes that social networking sites are popular means of CMC, but are distinct because of the inclusion of photos, video, a personal profile, network connections and the ability to add information to other’s profiles. He thinks that information is believed if it has warranting value, and the big question here is: does the user’s online profile match with his offline profile characteristics? Explaining that low warrant information can be easily manipulated by the owner and may not be trustworthy, while high warrant information is less easily changed and more trustworthy.

As a conclusion of the aforementioned, Walther admits SIP theory does not allow for differences in the affiliation drive, particularly in reference to motivating effects of anticipated future interaction, and also acknowledging that only additional work can discover the theoretical ‘glue’ that would bind the hyperpersonal perspective’s four components (sender, receiver, channel and feedback) into a coherent whole.