In Chapter 3 Baym starts the chapter with introducing the research topic of Social Presence Theory. The theory is a psychological trend involving how people interact with one another, or the “Level of interpersonal contact and feelings of intimacy in communications”. Thrulow,Lengel and Tomic (2004:48) An issue I felt was interesting about the theory was how the lack of social cues, such as facial expression or body language shaped the interaction of relationship. The issue seemed important to Scott E. Fahlman. He created the first set of Emoticons to convey certain expression such as the smiley face. Its interesting that someone came up with the idea to type different characters to create a social cue. We now have the ability to better understand a person’s intent for text in various CMC technology.
In the Linguistic Diversity Reading I found another interesting point about the National Censuses discussed by Gerrand. I did not know that nations conduct censuses on citizens of minority languages they consider important. They have concluded that best way to study the actual use of languages used on the internet is by web presence. An example of the rise in web presence is found in chapter 3 where Baym discusses the Miler and Slater’s ethnographic analysis. The analysis shows how Trinidadian identity sparked online interaction and the notion of linguistic diversity through web presence. The “Trinis” communicated in forms related to “being Trini” Baym(2010), as well as linking people to view Trinidadian national sites and more importantly personal websites.
I personally have not had any Involvement with languages outside of English. However i have started to notice people of diverse languages are commenting on public facebook pages that are in English, or leave comments on youtube videos that are in English as well. It makes me wonder if they watch or read their content in the their language or in English.
Do emoticons help you interpret messages? I’ve noticed at work that people use smiley faces in email all the time. Usually it’s a sign of goodwill. But I’ve also seen it used as sarcasm. How it’s interpreted depends moreso on the context of the message than the emoticon itself. Understaning the tone of a message is very important.
I was a very talented kid but at the same time I was very shy until one of my teachers in school encourages me to write down my own thoughts in a journal. When I start doing that I felt happeir and less shy to express my feelings. Therefore, I really liked it more when they invented the computers and all kinds of CMC. For me as a shy person, I always prefer to communicate with my family members and friends through Facebook than calling them or talking to them face-to-face. I even feel now that I’m more connected to them than before these innovations. At least if they cannot hear my voice, they are reading my post everyday on Facebook. For all that, I think that YES we can express our emotions in writing by using the smiley faces, angry faces, worried faces, and all other faces and cues and boost our creativity.
I wonder if quality of personal relationships has improved for people like yourself that prefer the physical distance that CMC provides. It would be interesting to see if a majority of introverts actually have closer personal relationships with the physical separation of CMC than they did before CMC and in particular SMTs. It would be a good counter point for those that feel that CMC is making our interactions more shallow.
Like you, I found the current psychological trend between people to be interesting. I have also failed to notice any languages outside of English. These two factors could be of major importance in the years to come. For instance, learning secondary languages may be a safe idea for our generation and the next few to come. As for the psychological trend, that may prove more complicated. It is impossible to change or even accurately judge interactions between two or more individuals.
One of my personal theories has always been that things like social presence, in CMC, depend not only on the cues available, but also to some extent on how well you know the person you are interacting with. So in the case of an email from a total stranger, all I have to go on is what’s in the text. But an email from my husband, or a good friend, can give me a lot more information, because I can read the email in the person’s voice, and I know whether they tend to use sarcasm, etc.
Does an email or a text “sound” different in your head depending on how well you know the sender?
Absolutely! The best part about receiving a text message or an email from a close acquaintance is hearing it said in their voice. It is very easy to get the wrong impression from a message if you do not know them. When you have a good relationship with someone, though, you can understand their message perfectly and you can also be certain they understand your tone as well. I rarely, if ever, use emoticons with people I do not know very well. I find that with my closest friends, though, we can have complete conversations through emoticons alone.