ABSTRACT
Beginning with the Athenian Mercury in 1691, individuals needing guidance, knowledge, and anonymity have sought assistance from advice columns. These letters provide a readily available means to study social change. Researchers can track themes to follow shifts in normative viewpoints by analyzing letters people have written about violated expectations in their daily lives. During the twenty-first century new concerns increasingly found their way into these letters. People now seek advice about varied aspects of digital behavior. This is to be expected, as almost all American adults use the Internet, and most post to at least one social media account on a daily basis. Online interactivity, including posting items such as pictures, can generate digital space conflicts affecting relationships with relatives, family, co-workers, romantic partners, and friends. As Internet use intensifies, letters regarding digital-life issues become more prevalent in modern advice columns. Authors also address the salience of such issues, as well as their relative visibility in advice columns. Content analysis of advice columns identified predominant categories of digital space conflicts: boundary violation, concern for consequences of another’s digital behavior, cyberbullying, “friending and unfriending,” general netiquette, and online dating. Letters also reflected conflicts that were digital parallels of traditional relationship issues.
