As the U.S. population has increasingly withdrawn into itself,Competence, Presence, Trust, and Hyperpersonal-ness considers the importance of communication technology for helping citizens become socially proficient in ways that transcend digital and physical environments. Experiencing computer-based social platforms as realistic and intimate allows networked social competence to add to interpersonal competence, Bouchillon argues. Trust is shown to benefit, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, he demonstrates that socially distanced individuals replicated their interpersonal lives using technology, and increased their social competence by doing so. Results suggest that society has reached the moment of hyperpersonal-ness, with computer-based social capabilities and feelings of presence being used to develop interpersonal competence and social capital, even in seclusion.

Brandon Bouchillon is assistant professor of journalism at the University of Arkansas.

Acknowledgments

Part I: Becoming Socially Competent

Chapter 1: More Optimistic Thinking about Social Technology

Chapter 2: Exchanging the Forms of Competence

Chapter 3: The Reciprocating Value of Social Presence

Chapter 4: Transforming Computer-mediated Competence

Part II: Restoring Social Trust

Chapter 5: Competence and Presence for Trusting

Chapter 6: Social Transformance for Trusting

Chapter 7: Competence, Presence, and Trust during COVID-19

Chapter 8: The New Pragmatism

About the Author