Summary of Social Information Processing Theory

The Social Information Processing Theory of Joseph Walther focuses on communication between two people through the cyberspace.

Walter mentioned that in order to build a relationship with somebody, you must first start with knowing bits and pieces about him or her. Automatically, when we want to try to do this, we thought of planning an appointment, may it be formal or not, to talk to that somebody face-to-face. But according to Walther, we can save the effort and hassle of doing this through computer-mediated-communication. Though he says this, Walther admits that non-verbal cues are filtered out of the interpersonal information that we send and receive through CMC. The non-verbal cues that we got used to in face to face communication like the facial expressions, tone of voice, body position and gestures are all absent here in CMC. But this doesn’t hinder anyone from building a relationship with anybody else.

Walther highlights two features of CMC:

1. Verbal cues- People can create impressions on a specific person based solely on the internet messages that they receive from that certain person.

2. Extended time- CMC users don’t get half or less of what face to face communication users do. They get the same information, same quality and quantity, but rather in longer period of time.



Walther is convinced that the length of time that CMC users have to send their messages is the key factor that determines whether their messages can achieve the level of intimacy that others develop face-to-face. CMC users can make up for this by sending messages more often.

In CMC also,

- You get to only disclose the part of you, which you wish to present. (sender)


- You start by joining a specific online group and try to find someone who has the same interests as with you. You observe and then that’s when you figure out what they really are. (receiver)


- You get to manage your own time because you choose the time on when to reply to a specific message. (channel)


Having been read the summary above, using CMC or face-to-face communication is up to you now.