Sociology

Digital media

Face-to-face

Social science

Internet privacy

Computer-mediated communication

The Internet

Epistemology

World Wide Web

Philosophy

Psychology

Face-to-face interaction

Social connectedness

Face (sociological concept)

Computer science

Social media

Communication

Social psychology

New Media & Society

Theoretical and empirical work on digital media use and social connectedness has often considered face-to-face communication to be an available option. But how do various digital media uses relate to social connectedness when face-to-face communication is not, or much less, possible? Drawing on survey data from 2925 US adults during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that different digital communication methods display different relationships with social connectedness under stay-at-home circumstances with limited in-person interactions outside the home. Overall, digital communication relates to lower social connectedness. In line with notions from social presence theory, especially digital media lower in social presence (e.g. email, social media, and online games, and to some extent text messaging) relate negatively to social connectedness, while this is not the case for higher social presence media (e.g. voice and video calls). Our study has implications for theorizing about digital media use and social connectedness in times when face-to-face communication is less available.

Staying connected while physically apart: Digital communication when face-to-face interactions are limited