In Up to Date, Tong and Van Der Heide explore the spicy, unsettling-and sometimes just exhausting-universe of online romance.

Stephanie Tom Tong (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an associate professor of communication at Wayne State University. Her work-situated at the intersection of social media and interpersonal communication-examines how family, friends, and romantic partners use technology to initiate, maintain, and dissolve close relationships.

Brandon Van Der Heide (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an associate professor of communication at Michigan State University. Brandon studies how people learn to trust one another and how this trust affects communication processes, relationships, and outcomes on the Internet.