Sunday, September 21, 2008
The internet isn't just a technology that connects us to endless amounts of information, it also connects us to people. There are a variety of tools that we utilise such as, email, facebook and blogs that make communicating with others more accessible. Is it possible however, that these avenues create impersonal communication? And if so, what are the implications of this?
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3 comments:
Hi Riki,
I was thinking about the impersonal communication you wrote about. I believe a lot of that to be true, especially when it comes to chat rooms and forums. It must be easier to abuse someone when they are not there to defend themselves and any opinion can be offered without fear of immediate retribution. Also, emails and posts tend to be brief and to the point and this often leaves out the gentle or courteous add on to a sentence. One has to admit that email is faster, easier and cheaper than a phone call so I suppose it can increase communications, especially with people some distance away, but, is the convenience of email increasing communication and decreasing the quality? Think about what we tend to say, “I’ll just fire off this email and be right with you…”
When I think of a face to face confrontations I’ve had with someone, say a rude shopkeeper, (or my mother,) these are often softened by the passage of time as I begin to forget or as the anger gets diffused by daily activities, but a vitriolic text or post stays in the system allowing me to engage with it in its raw state anytime. Until I delete it. Come to think of it, with archival internet, one can enjoy that nasty feeling over and over, forever. Talk about carrying a grudge.
I also think that there is greater scope for miscommunication because we cannot see the facial expressions or hear the cadence of the voice. Often we need to fill the emotion in and if we are having a bad day a phrase, such as, “you need to go for a walk” written in an email can be interpreted as a bossy push rather than a soft suggestion. Our reaction can be “who does that person think he is telling me what I need?” rather than, “That’s really kind, this friend has my best interest at heart.” Not everyone has the skills of a neuro-linguistics programmer, but I think everyone has a talent for “reading” faces and gestures.
What about the opposite? What came to mind are ways in which strangers become friends so quickly over the internet. I was thinking of chat rooms, forums, dating sites, on-line support groups… there is a strange rapidity with which people form attachments because they are not in contact with each other in a personal face to face way and one’s imagination takes over and fills in the blanks. When one doesn’t have the person face to face cringing at the questions or the answers it’s easier to get really personal information much faster. Oh God, I just thought of on-line predators. People can seem really charming and ideal when all we can see are carefully chosen photos and clever wording and without the threat of personal rejection or criticism, one feels less vulnerable and more willing to take risks.
Veronica
Studies about the correlation between increasing internet use and decreasing social relationships
http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/Projects/personal-lives/contradictory.html
When reading your response I started to think about the meaning of body language. When we talk to people face to face we use hand gestures that portray alot about we are saying at that moment. The internet, including facebook and email (unless you are using a web cam) eliminates body language all together. I wonder if that is why those little yellow facial expressions became so popular through MSN? The other thing I was thinking about is the saying 'don't judge a book by it's cover'. Internet dating and meeting friends has become very popular. However, you are able to change your appearance as well as your personality because the initial first impression feeling that you get when you meet someone is lost. It is almost safe to say that you cannot trust who you are meeting nor what they have made themselves out to be. I agree that face to face confrontation is more difficult... but emotions are lost through typing. Having a heated argument with a person on the internet is not a valid way to communicate feelings. It limits the argument and reduces it to only what letters can covey. The power of ones voice whether it be something nice or something harsh will always be more effective then typing.
Facebook definitely facilitates informal communication (for the good OR bad). For the good I think that Facebook is a great icebreaker when meeting new people. It allows a person to subtly poke their nose into someone's life, but not see anything the user is not willing to show. This kind of informal communication is positive. On the other hand though, the type of informal communication it creates is that when someone is trying to establish or retain meaningful relationships via the online network, yet the structure (it being so public) causes that kind of communication to be almost tacky. Overall, that's what I take Facebook to be, a network that you must take the bad to get the good.
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