COMM 3400 - [Personal Relationships and Technology]

(crosslisted) INFO 3400
(SBA-AG)

Spring. Next offered 2017-2018. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: COMM 2820 COMM 2450. Must attend the first class.

N. Bazarova.

This course explores personal connections in the digital age, and how information and communication technologies impact our lives and relationships. It focuses on how people manage interactions and identities, develop and maintain relationships, accomplish social goals, create shared meanings, and engage in collaboration and conflict in social media. Emphasis will be placed on how current thinking in relational communication can explain and anticipate interpersonal dynamics on the Internet, but also on how online behaviors may challenge traditional principles of human communication. A major part of the course is a semester-long research project in which students working in small groups design, run, and present their own empirical study of personal relationships and technology.

Outcome 1: To examine and extend basic principles of interpersonal communication to human behavior and relationships on the Internet.

Outcome 2: To explore the nature and role of perception of self and others in computer-mediated interactions.

Outcome 3: To investigate how interpersonal relationships are affected by information and communication technologies.

Outcome 4: To form an awareness of research methods that are used to study social behavior on the Internet.