Social Penetration Theory Analysis

The social penetration theory was developed by Altman and Taylor in 1973. The theory claims that as the relationship between people develops, the communication begins with sharing non-intimate information to intimate information. According to Carpenter and Greene (2016), development of relationships depends to larger extent by self-disclosure. Self-disclosure defines the breath, depth and norm of reciprocity of a relationship. Altman and Taylor outlined four stages of intimacy that helps us understand the human communication. According to the theory, the human communication begins with an orientation stage whereby the people begin with small talks that are non-intimate and seeks to create a good impression about the people involve. Secondly, communication enters the exploratory affective stage whereby the communicators begin to gain some trust and consequently begin to revel some details about themselves. They express their opinions about some general topics.

Furthermore, the theory suggests that the human communication reaches at the affective stage and the stable stage whereby the communicators

The level of self-disclosure depicted by the online social media such as the Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, twitter and snap-chat among others supports the arguments of the social penetration theory. The social penetration theory claims that relationship develop from non-intimate levels to intimate levels due to the increasing level of self-disclosure through communication. Huston (2009) identifies inconsistency of using the social penetration theory to support the social media communications especially through the Facebook. According to Huston (2009), intimate self-disclosure begins before the two communicators decide to enter into a conversation. Therefore, it does not follow the linear model of non-intimate to intimate as indicated by the social penetration