Assignment 5 Option 1: Long Distance Relationship

For this assignment I will be analyzing my long-distance relationship with my girlfriend over this summer using Wallace’s attraction factors. I will try to maintain a certain amount of anonymity since she is not only in this class, but also in this blog. I will tell you, however, that her name begins with “B” and ends with “ianca”. We became very good friends last year, both of us transferring to Cornell in the fall and living in the Transfer Center on the same floor. By the end of the year we were dating and when summer came around we were forced into long-distance relationship. We could no longer see each other everyday and communicate face-to-face, as she lives almost two hours away from me in Philadelphia, so we had to communicate through mediated channels such as AIM.
One way in which my long-distance relationship can be analyzed is through the proximity factor. In face-to-face interactions, familiarity with another person proves to enhance attraction based on one’s location. The closer someone is to someone else, and therefore the more they come into contact with that person, the more attraction there will be. In computer mediated communication, attraction is determined by the intersection frequency. The intersection frequency is how often one will encounter another in an online space such as a chat room, blog, or instant messenger. In CMC, the higher the intersection frequency, the more familiarity, and therefore more attraction there exists. In this case, my girlfriend and I both utilized AOL Instant Messenger almost everyday during the summer. She was online nearly every time I was and we talked online on a regular basis. In other words, our intersection frequency was very high. Although we could not speak face-to-face, our high intersection frequency on AIM proved to increase our familiarity, therefore increasing attraction.
Another way the long-distance relationship can be analyzed is through the common ground theory. The idea here is that individuals are attracted to others who share the same beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, etc. These shared attributes, together taken as common ground, help determine how attracted one is to another; the more they share in common, the more attracted they will be. In my case this summer, I knew a lot about my girlfriend from being friends with her the whole year, but also learned a lot more that we shared in common through CMC. I learned about everything from literary interests we shared, to beliefs on social issues, even to certain attitudinal traits that came out during our communications. Over the course of the summer I was astonished to see how similar we were, both with my previous knowledge from our face-to-face interactions and the new knowledge from the mediated ones. These findings of common ground proved to increase attraction even further and since we share such a large proportion of these beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes, the Law of Attraction further states that there will be a high level of attraction between the two of us.

http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/09/5-my-e-mail-relationship.html
http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/09/assignment-5-option-1-away-from-home.html