Relational Presence in Distanced Interdependent Relationships

This paper synthesizes research from the presence literature (i.e., social presence, co-presence) as well as organizational and relational communication literatures to introduce the concept of relational presence: the perceived salience of human-to-human connection in mediated contexts. Relational presence ranges from "fully present " to "absent", and involves 4 dimensions: degree of mutuality, proximality, cognitive orientation, and tangibility. Understanding relational presence may be the key to explaining the difference between successful and problematic distanced interdependent relationships. Keywords--- social presence, distanced relationships. Distanced interdependent relationships (DIRs), across several contexts, are an ever-increasing occurrence. Up t