Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) 

& A Friend for Life

Around 10 years ago, I met a friend through Facebook. Let’s call him N as what he requested me to call him the first time I knew him. Initially we were in the same group in Facebook for a programme called ‘Bakti Siswa UUM’. I was just 12 years old and N was 22 at that time. He personal messaged me to pass information about the programme which will be held at my school and from there we started to talk. The thing is, we have never met each other in real life but we became closer day by day, we share experiences mostly about life and also studies. Sometimes we share recipes too as he is good at cooking. Though we have not yet meet each other, we have known each other’s family members too.

However, like how Media Richness Theory suggest that face-to-face communication provides a rich mix of verbal and non-verbal cue systems, we too sometimes feel like there are certain boundaries to the cue systems that we are unable to pass through as we are communicating using CMC. Nevertheless, the Social Information Processing Theory have proven that relationships may grow when parties gain information about each other and then use the information to form interpersonal impressions which would lead to the relationship development. As for me and N, we started to talk in Facebook and later on using SMS and now WhatsApp. I can say that it wasn’t easy to disclose about yourself to others especially when you have never met the person in real life. It took us almost 10 years to get to know each other well and be friends despite not meeting in person.

I have had few impressions about him and I believe so did he. After all these years, we believed that some of the impressions changed as we get to disclose about ourselves more to each other. Not only that, our friendship develops from strangers talking about a programme, to friends that share experiences and now best friends that seek and look for advices from each other. I can say that the good 10 years have made us both be a better friend to each other. We’ve seen each other growing up and getting older. I’m grateful that I have a good experience with CMC.

In a nutshell, CMC have its pros and cons too. When used accordingly, we are able to get the best out of it. Even though it provides space for us to not be our real self, it is always best to just be yourself. Do you believe that you can find a friend for life only by using CMC? I believed and I found one!