Human Copresence and Interaction

Human interaction involves three basic elements: condition of human copresence, mode of human contact, and type of human relationship. The objective of my research is to investigate, conceptualize, and understand the changing conditions of human copresence, the emergent modes of human contact, and the evolving human relationships in the Internet era.

Selected Publications

Zhao, S. & Elesh, D. 2008. “Copresence as ‘Being With’: Social Contact in Online Public Domains.” Information, Communication & Society 11(4):564-583. pdf file

Zhao, S., Grasmuck, S., & Martin, J. 2008. “Identity Construction on Facebook: Digital Empowerment in Anchored Relationships.” Computers in Human Behavior 24:1816-1836. pdf file

Zhao, S. & Elesh, D. 2007. "The Second Digital Divide: Unequal Access to Social Capital in the Online World." International Review of Modern Sociology 33(2):171-192.

Zhao, S. 2007. “Internet and the Lifeworld: Updating Schutz’s Theory of Mutual Knowledge.” Information Technology and People 20(2):140-160.

Zhao, S. 2006. "The Internet and the Transformation of the Reality of Everyday Life: Toward a New Analytic Stance of Sociology." Sociological Inquiry 76(4): 458-474. pdf file

Zhao, S. 2006. "Do Internet Users Have More Social Ties? A Call for Differentiated Analyses of Internet Use." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11(3), Article 8. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue3/zhao.html

Zhao, S. 2006. "Humanoid Social Robot as a Medium of Communication." New Media & Society 8(3): 401-419. pdf file

Zhao, S. 2005. "The Digital Self: Through the Looking Glass of Telecopresent Others." Symbolic Interaction 28(3): 387-405. pdf file

Zhao, S. 2004. "Consociated Contemporaries as an Emergent Realm of the Lifeworld: Extending Schutz's Phenomenological Analysis to Cyberspace." Human Studies 27(1): 91-105. pdf file

Zhao, S. 2003. "Toward a Taxonomy of Copresence." Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 12(5): 445-455. pdf file

Zhao, S. 2003. "'Being There' and the Role of Presence Technology." Pp.138-145 in Being There: Concepts, Effects and Measurement of User Presence in Synthetic Environments, edited by Giuseppe Riva and Fabrizio Davide. Amsterdam, IOS Press.