Most college students who live on campus are faced with the prospect of sharing a small space with a complete stranger. When Shawna heard about her new roommate, Ramona, she entered her name and hometown into Google. She quickly found Ramona on Facebook and learned that she is a concert pianist and an avid knitter who sometimes sells her creations through Etsy.com (see Antheunis, Valkenburg, & Peter, 2010).
Shawna engaged in a passive uncertainty reduction strategy. Passive strategies involve observing others in communication situations without actually interacting with them. You may also analyze their interactions with others when you believe they are not under a lot of pressure to conform to social roles. Without Ramona knowing it, Shawna had already found out quite a bit about her. Social networking allows us to monitor others with relative ease, but we also use passive strategies whenever we observe others going about their day-