Chapter 10 Chapter Summary & Learning Objectives

Chapter Summary

In Chapter 10, we briefly outline the early beginnings of mediated communication and address how they impact society. Then, we review recent trends in how people form and maintain personal connections via the Internet. While most discourse focuses on the benefits of mediated communication, scholars have also warned about the potential negative effects on people’s social lives. Can personal relations maintained online provide as much social support as those maintained in person? The chapter then focuses on how social media have redefined our notion of friendship and the implications of these changes for community and social networking. What follows is an analysis of romance 2.0, investigating how people form and terminate romantic relations using social media. The chapter then moves to an exploration of the concept of virtual mourning and how people renegotiate, online, the meaning of death. Finally, the chapter addresses the concept of cyberbullying examining the types that exist, the long-term effects for victims, and the types of intervention.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you should learn to do the following:

• to discuss how the introduction of the telephone helped redraw social boundaries and shift our understanding of social space;
• to examine current understandings of socialization and friendship in the context of digital media;
• to investigate how digital media have affected the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of romantic relationships;
• to explore the concept of virtual mourning and how it shifts our understanding of death; and
• to unpack the concept of cyberbullying, review its effects, and outline different types of intervention.