The basic idea presented in the Media Equation Theory is that media is real life. It is everything we see everyday on a screen. It is so real, it's scary. It relates to the previously learned lesson concerning expectancy violations. Reeves and Nass respond to their theory by saying that "we respond to communication media as if they were human."(handout) It's an idea that is more used than one would think, and when keeping this idea in mind one will see it in more obvious ways than usual.
             Interpersonal distance plays its role here, but more at the television's range from a person rather than another person. This distance reacts as if it were a person. And, results vary depending upon that distance and the size of the screen being watched. When viewing a show we tend to watch as if it were real life. We will scream when watching our favorite team win a Superbowl, or cry at the team that lost the World Series. Sometimes we even find ourselves taking it a little too serious.
             "Media are full participants in our social and natural world." (handout) Similarity and action occurs when the media actually becomes like a personality. It can be submissive and dominant. It can create ideas for us, or allow us to do that completely on our own. Many times people with similar characteristics to the computer like that type much better to relate to their own traits.
             Source credibility occurs when we know how truthful something may actually be. Some people believe a teacher over a student due to the teacher's credibility. CNN has most people believing they are more credible than any other new station, and the public sees this as true because CNN is the one playing the news 24/7. My father only watches the weather on the Weather Station. He thinks that the local station will not know as much about the current local weather as the Weather Station has on "the local
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