The quality of face-to-face and digitally mediated social interactions: two experience sampling studies exploring the moderating role of physical location, interaction partner familiarity, and interaction purpose

Abstract

This study examines how communication modality influences social interaction quality and its contingency on three other situational characteristics: physical location, partner familiarity, and interaction purpose. Data from two experience sampling studies including 385 Spanish emerging adults and 10,203 social interaction reports revealed that compared to face-to-face interactions, phone calls were rated higher, video calls showed no significant difference, and text-based and social media interactions (e.g., commenting) were rated lower. However, other situational factors mattered. For example, video calls at home were perceived as higher in quality than face-to-face, whereas face-to-face was superior outside the home. For partner familiarity, social media interactions with weak (vs. strong) ties were of significantly lower quality. For interaction purpose, texting was superior to face-to-face in leveraging social interaction quality when having negative (vs. maintenance) interactions. Combined, the results thus plead for greater consideration of the situation when examining the effects of (mediated) interpersonal communication.