Online Safety Nets: How Perceived Isolation Motivates Network Closure.

Abstract

The feeling of being alone – and drive to vanquish that feeling – represents a common interest among theorists in communication, psychology, and sociology. Despite extensive literatures on isolation, exclusion, rejection, and loneliness, less is known about how these feelings reverberate through personal networks. Concurrently, the ascent of mobile and social technologies has generated a range of communicative possibilities that complicate our understanding of how people respond to moments of social isolation. Indeed, evolving network theories suggest that these media affordances have the potential to steer communication toward certain people and away from others. In this dissertation, I attempt to interlace this dual theoretical backdrop, integrating classic theories on the experience of social isolation with recent theories on the social implications of online affordances. I argue that perceived isolation is likely to drive people toward network closure, or what Kadushin (2012) refers to as “network safety”. I also argue that this thrust is more likely to occur in online networks that are defined by availability and awareness, such as Facebook. In order to substantiate these claims, this dissertation encompasses studies measuring online network outcomes in combination with three different versions of perceived isolation: induced exclusion (Study 1), exclusion reactivity (Study 2), and rejection sensitivity (Study 3). Altogether, the combined results indicate that feelings of isolation can shift social attention and preference toward trusted ties and core circles. Over time, these patterns suggest that people who experience more frequent and intense feelings of isolation may choose to fortify close relationships and closed communities, rather than embrace weak ties and open networks. To conclude, I contextualize the findings within other models of perceived isolation, and propose an extra component for the observed network dynamics. Expanding on this phenomenon, I theorize how certain cognitive states may operate as network switches, changing personal network motivations in a dynamic manner. With the emergence of increased availability and awareness, individuals have increased capacity to choose, and thus shift, their personal network patterns during daily life. Consequently, I call for new research on the cognitive mechanisms that underlie social network motivations, perceptions, and choices.