Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words?

摘要

This article asks whether, and when, participants benefit from seeing each other's faces in computer-mediated communication. Although new technolo- gies make is relatively easy to exchange images over the Internet, our formal understanding of their impacts is not clear. Some theories suggest that the more one can see of one's partners, the better one will like them. Others suggest that long-term virtual members may like each other better than would those who use face-to-face interaction.