because of the limitations of mediated communication, nardi and whittaker (2002) note, "many theorists imply that face-to-face communication is the gold standard of communication." mediated communication has been, however, described as preferable in some situations, particularly where time and geographical distance are an issue. for example, in maintaining long-distance friendship, face-to-face communication was only the fourth most common way of maintaining ties, after mediated communication tools of telephone, email and instant messaging.