Knapp’s Relational Model

 During my first year of college, I had taken a small group communication course, which allowed me to meet a lot of different people. This was during the pandemic and I was not able to make new friends, since I was quarantined at home and was unable to attend school in-person. In this class, my professor would assign groups to make a presentation about different topics. In my group, I had met a particular person, who I found myself to get along with greatly. According to Knapp's stages of relationships, I was at the Initiation stage, since we had just met for the first time. After a while, we had started to still have small talk, even though we did not participate in the same small group communication groups anymore. We would ask each other questions about our interest and life. For example, we would talk about cars, since during this time I was looking to buy my first car. Overtime, we would talk about school as well and our classes as well. In Knapp's stages of relationships, we were at the Experimenting stage, since we were starting to ask questions that were not related to the "original reasoning" that we had to start talking (which was us having to talk about making a presentation about homeless teens in America). However, according to the link that I had provided below, the Experimenting stage is to see if the parties should move onto the next stage (intensifying) or stop the relationship. After going through this stage, me and my classmate did not continue this relationship and our status was only classmates. Since this had occurred, the stage in Knapp's started to be a part of the Avoiding stage (the parties start to lessen in communication). 

The impacts of online communication affected my relationship by allowing me to start the relationship in the first place. Without me being a part of this particular class, I would have not had the chance to start a short-term friendship, during a rough period of time in the world. I had started meeting knew people from a school that I had never stepped foot in. I had went so long without talking to anyone in a school setting and Zoom allowed me to do so. Online communication had allowed me to finish my associates degree while being safe during the time of the pandemic and I am grateful to still be able to start my bachelors degree at my own pace, while still being able to meet new people from all around the world.

Photo Credit: https://blog.adamroslan.com/daily-craps/knapps-relational-development-model.html

Information about Experimenting Stage: https://study.com/academy/lesson/knapps-model-of-interaction-stages.html