Of friendster, me and l♥ve.

Social Information Processing Theory By: Joseph Walter

It was October. Right? I was surfing the net (friendster for that matter), viewed some profiles, dropped a few comments and as I always do, changed my shout out. Little did I know that I would become one of Joseph Walter’s models for SIPT. I dropped a comment on the page of this one girl I saw. At that moment, there were no strings attached. No intentions whatsoever.

She commented back on me and found out that we shared a lot of things in common, knew same people but did not remember on meeting each other ever in our own lives. Strange, it was because I was really preoccupied with my studies at that time but still I managed to check on my friendster account just to see if someone (she) replied to one of my comments.

Until it came to a time when she asked my phone number. We texted a lot, told each other about even the most nonsense things that happened to us over the day. And as time passed, our relationship grew deeper and deeper. We shared our sentiment through the phone called each other just to say hi and went back to the real world again.

In this scenario SIPT is present where Computer Mediated Communication is found to be an effective avenue for relationship development. While it is true that CMC takes longer time to cultivate relationship (1:4 ratio), equally true is the premise of SIPT that relationship formed in CMC may equal the relationship of face-to-face communication.

Even the time when we reply to each other’s messages is an important factor in CMC because the parties involved may reply to each other in their most comfortable time that they can afford. The absence of Non-verbal cues is also vital as it enables the communicator to respond on each other on the basis of words only. People behind those profiles and numbers may also edit out and think of the message they ought to bring out since NVCs are absent.

And so, it came to the point when she actually asked me on the phone whether I had a crush on her. I said no. I was lying of course- another possibility in CMC. Time passes by and seasons change. Days went a little warmer and days were longer so it was finally the time when we’d meet inevitably. It was February I guess. I rode a motorcycle and was still in my high school uniform; it rained and the cold gale brushed through my face. When I got off the motorcycle, she was the first one that I saw. Everything was different. If on the CMC, we talked and talked to each other as if we were on a box together, on the real time communication; I experienced difficulty in speaking directly to her. I blushed and smiled but could not talk that much.

More than a year has already passed by since that first comment on friendster and I am officially missing it (her). At CMC, we felt so close even if we were worlds apart. Ironically, when face-to-face communication came in, it felt like I was a galaxy away from her even if she was just standing in front of me. This is a crazy world.

I really hope that we’d be back the same way we were- the same way when it was still that October.


I miss you Maxine.