Interrogative Strategies and Information Exchange in Computer-Mediated Communication

The explosive growth of Internet and E-mail use has provided exceptional opportunities for humans to mediate their communication and thus their relationships in new ways. This study reports on a content analysis of interrogative strategies used in E-mail messages exchanged over six months between intergenerational sets of senior citizens and youngsters. A great deal of relationship development is facilitated by the use of questions which are a core aspect of uncertainty reduction processes. While Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) has been a predominant theoretical position for examining face-to-face initial interaction, its utility for examining communication in an asynchronous, computer-mediated environment was only partially effective. Data analyses focused on politeness of questions, types of questions, and, temporal effects. Results suggest that the interrogative strategies we engage in to achieve interpersonal connectedness are sometimes different in computer-mediated communication (CMC) and a new standard for transacting relational message exchange may be emerging.