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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, computermediated 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 (CMQ and a new standard for transacting relational message exhange may be emerging.
KEY CONCEPTS Uncertainty reduction, asynchronous communication, interrogative strategies, question typologies, content analysis.
Relationships are created through computer-mediated communication (CMC).' We naturally seek to form social and personal relationships with others and have shown remarkable adaptation in accomplishing this goal via differing media. Of the CMC options available, e-mail is one of the most popular and ubiquitous forms of on-line communication (Rafter, 1997). E-mail is an asynchronous written medium that often resembles and replaces memoranda (Walther, 1996b). It also functions as a conduit for conventional forms of communication much as traditional mail does, In fact, traditional mail has long been a favored forum for people seeking to develop relationships (pen pals) with strangers residing in other geographical locations. Pen pals provide opportunities to exchange information and opinions with each other, and also supply social and emotional support between participants.
Therefore, the notion of pen pal relationships finding a translation in the electronic community is a natural evolution. People are connecting and conversing in new social formations that Jones (1995a, 1995b) has dubbed "cybersociety." Just as traditional social formations have provided grist for understanding human communicative behavior, these new types of connections provide a fertile opportunity for revealing both the continuity that characterizes our communication and the sometimes capricious nature which inhabits our postmodern communication.
In this research, we propose to examine a specific component of natural relationship...