 Joseph B. Walther, Brandon Van Der Heide, Sang-Yeon Kim, David Westerman, & Stephanie Tom Tong, The Role of Friends’ Appearance and Behavior on Evaluations of Individuals on Facebook: Are We Known by the Company We Keep? Human Communication Research 34(1):28-49, 2008.
• Studied “whether and at what rate impressions are formed online, how online impressions may be like or unlike offline impressions, and how people judge the authenticity of self-presentation online”
• “What complicates these sites from an impression formation perspective is that people other than the person about whom the site is focused also contribute information to the site”
o In relation to Facebook (comments, photos, etc)
• “more importantly, whereas postings by other people on one’s own profile reflect the character of the individuals who made the postings, it is also possible that observers’ reactions of those others may affect perceptions of the target profile maker as well, even though the profile maker his-or herself did not initiate or condone the postings”
o People associate anything that is on your profile to you as a person, even though you may not condone the behavior/language of whoever is posting on your profile
• March 7, 2007 (Facebook users: approx 19 million)
• “even if people question what has been said about them, they may follow Facebook norms and leave questionable posts on display”
o Norm: deleting a post “defeats the spirit of Facebook’s very utility and implicitly challenges the rule of friendship”
• Tufekci and Spence (2007) conducted a survey
o Result: “half of Facebook users….reported the discovery of unwanted pictures posted by other people, linked to their own profiles”
• Contrast effect: if an average person is in a picture with a person that is unattractive they are seen as more attractive, but if they are in a picture with a person that is attractive they are less attractive
 Stephanie Tom Tong, Brandon Van Der Heide, Lindsey Langwell, Joseph B. Walther, Too Much of a Good Thing? The Relationship Between Number of Friends and Interpersonal Impressions on Facebook. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(3):531–49, 2008.
• Relationships between attractiveness and Facebook
o Study: kindergarteners give a picture of two same sex people (one previously rated as attractive and another as unattractive) kindergarterners would rather be friends with the more attractive individual
o “attractiveness halo effect”: attractiveness and social acceptance are linked
• “Social networking systems can facilitate mixed-mode relationships. Walther and Parks (2002) defined mixed mode relationships as those which move from an electronic context to a face-to-face setting or vice-versa. In this case of social networking systems we may see many relaionthips that hover between the virtual and physical quite frequently.”
 Nick Yee and Jeremey Bailenson, The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior. Human Communication Research 33(3):271–90, 2007.
• Proteus effect: “an individual’s behavior conforms to their self-representation independent of how others perceive them”
• “the Proteus Effect may impact behavior on the community level. When thousands of users interact, most of whom have chosen attractive avatars, the virtual community may become more friendly and intimate. This may impact the likelihood of relationship formation online”

OTHER LINKS
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/119551041/PDFSTART
Communication Networks and the Development of Romantic Relationships: An Expansion of Uncertainty Reduction Theory
Malcom R. Parks, Mara B. Adelman (University of Washington)
• Explored premarital romantic relationships
• Respondents completed questionnaires and participated in telephone interviews three months later
• More communication better relationship
• Goal of this study to enhance our understanding of developing romantic relationships be expanding uncertainty reduction theory to include
o The amount of communication between he individual and the partner’s friends and family
o The extent to which members of the partners’ networks express support for the romantic relationship
• “increased uncertainty also means that more time and energy must be expended to achive understanding. Berger and Roloff (1982) have suggested that relationships are more likely to terminate under these conditions because the participants become weary of the increased demands on their time and energy”