Social Presence

Social presence is one of the most important theoretical concepts to the understanding of people’s social interaction in technology-mediated communication environments (e.g., social media, e-mails, phones, video-conferencing technologies such as FaceTime and Skype). Although the definition of social presence has not yet been agreed upon, the notion is generally understood as a feeling of being aware of and/or connected to the other social actor in a mediated environment. This entry provides a brief introduction of this concept, focusing on various conceptualizations, causes, effects, and implications of social presence.

Various Conceptualizations of Social Presence

Given the complicated nature of the notion, social presence has been studied from various perspectives in diverse contexts since early social presence research in 1976. Initially, social presence research ...

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