What Is Irwin Altman´s Social Penetration Theory?
1258 Words6 Pages
The main objective of this article, that the author tried to convey, was that he wanted to see if that the topics that bloggers talked about were different. That what they talked about online was different from what they talked about in real life. Now the theory that they used for this article was Social Penetration Theory and how they applied this theory to their research was that they took the main objective of the theory and applied it to the relationships that the bloggers had with their audience and with their family members. It was in the end that they concluded that based on the participants and the bloggers self-disclosure scale (BSDS) that bloggers had a habit of telling their experience, thoughts, and feelings to their best friends…show more content… They quote Altman by explaining and defining what Social Penetrator Theory is, which is “people assess interpersonal rewards and costs, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, gained from interaction with others, and that the advancement of the relationship is heavily dependent on the amount and nature of the rewards and costs” (Tang 245). Of course when writing about the theory, they did not cite anybody else beyond the original. To support their claims in their research they only used their results and findings, mostly in the end, when they discussed how their findings related to the theory. They only mentioned the ‘wedge model’, which they had mentioned earlier in their research that was part of explanation of what Social Penetration Theory…show more content… That they do think about what they tell people before they tell them either online or face-to-face and I find that interesting. I think because of that my understandings did change a little bit, mostly when it comes to this theory. To me I always figured that Social Penetration Theory was like Russian roulette with information in conversations, but because of this article it made me realize that it can applied to all kind of conversations, whether it be face-to-face or via screen. It makes me understand human communication a little bit more then I knew before. Before in conversations, I would not think about what kind of words or topics that were talked about or brought up either by the other person or myself, but knowing about this topic, some past conversations now make a little bit more sense. It is interesting because it is like glass shattering and seeing the truth, mostly when it comes to human communication and conversing with other people. Maybe now when talking with family, friends, and also online I will most likely think more about what I am talking about and what I am willing to