Modeling everyday talk: Differences across communication media and sex composition of friendship dyads

Abstract

This manuscript advances a mesolevel approach to everyday talk. Given frequent use of mediated communication within interpersonal relationships, we use a technique akin to multitrait/multimethod decomposition to separate content- and medium-specific variance sources. The results find that cross-sex friends enact everyday talk behaviors less frequently than do same-sex friends when communicating face-to-face and via telephone, but these differences do not emerge when online. After controlling for these sex differences, online communication attitudes predict everyday talk across specific media. Beyond offering methodological tools, these results may suggest cross-sex dyads communicate online to buffer against intimacy and thus preserve friendship as platonic.