Social Penetration Theory in the Outer Banks

The Outer Banks is a TV show set on the coast of North Carolina with a handful of different characters from very different backgrounds. One one end of the spectrum, there is Sarah Cameron, who is born into a very rich family and does not mix with the kids who are not in her circle. On the other end of the spectrum is the rest of the friend group in the TV show, and these characters consist of John B, JJ, Kiara, and Pope. In the show, those who are born into rich or well-known families are called kooks, and those who are not and work for a living are called pogues. The integration of Sarah and the group of friends who are considered pogues become friends as the show goes on because they learn that they can become friends even though they are told not to be from a young age by getting to know each other.

Social penetration theory is described as, “the process of developing deeper intimacy with another person through mutual self-disclosure and other forms of vulnerability,” (94). As one gets to know another person, they learn more and more about their personality and their life. The depth of penetration depends on how well you get to know someone. Depth of penetration can be defined as, “the degree of disclosure in a specific area of an individual’s life,” (95). Getting to know someone at a different time in life can also affect how one penetrates the layers of their personality. This can be described as the breadth of penetration, which is, “The range of areas in an individual’s life over which disclosure takes place,” (96).

At the beginning of the plot, Sarah and John B are obviously spiteful towards one another because of their backgrounds. Sarah is considered a kook and her family is very wealthy. This conflicts with John B because he is a pogue and does not appreciate the fact that Sarah has a lot of money and not a lot of problems like he does. After an episode or two, John B and Sarah go take a ferry to the mainland so that they can go find something that is key for John B to find in order so that he can find what his father had been looking for before he passed away. They bond over this experience, and by the time they get back they soon realize that they are in love. The depth of penetration that they experienced on their outing was enough to become intimate with one another. Before this outing they had, they had still considered each other enemies, but the timing of the outing worked in their favor. This demonstrates that the breadth of penetration was also key to them getting to know one another better. Later on after John B decides to tell the rest of his friends that she had been helping him with their project, and his friends all are against their relationship. They did not make an attempt to get to know Sarah before deciding that it was not a good relationship. They did not experience the social penetration that John B and Sarah had experienced when they were out of town getting to know one another beyond the social divide that existed between the pogues and the kooks. By the end of the show, they are all working together towards a common goal. They all had gotten to know Sarah, and they had looked beyond the social divide.