CMC in Personal Relationships Chp12

The concept of friendship, what it means and how CMC influences it has been discussed at a number of times in both books and class discussions. Here the authors look specifically at friendship. They show how the history of research into friendship is helpful in understanding its new definition in the age of CMC. I thought it was good to note that the past views on friendship were not wrong but based on an earlier age of communication. When the new forms of CMC began to introduce themselves into society the concept of friendship began to change. The old standards for how a friendship could be modeled no longer applied. The idea of friendship being flexible helps researchers understand how new forms of CMC can fit into the model for friends interpersonal communication. This chapter dispenses with notions of good or bad in terms of outcomes but simply notes the effects of certain changes and actions. This is especially true when looking at the ending of relationships. The chapter covers individual channels of CMC and their impact and usage in relationships, but the section I found interesting was on the web of CMC and the future of research. The interplay of different channels of CMC to serve multiple purposes in different types of relationships whose outcomes or results are dependent the personalities of the people involved is mind blowing. It's so complex and multifaceted a field of study I'm not sure it's possible to understand all the workings of how CMC and relationships interact because forms of communication and social norms are constantly evolving. Just as previous notions of friendship changed and became obsolete it will no doubt continue to happen again and again.