Lost or Liberated?

Today I want to share with you some insights from my ‘Social Aspects of New Media’-course, in which we’re studying online relationships. So sit back, relax and soak up some knowledge.

The dawn of the Internet has given rise to many forms of computer mediated communication (CMC), such as email, MSN, forums and social networking sites.  In the 80’s and 90’s scientists started researching CMC and the social processes involved. They used existing media theories and were initially quite negative about the phenomenon and its’ outcomes. They basically said: Don’t even bother trying to form a relationship online; it’ll never be as good as an offline relationship. Their beliefs can be grouped together under what is known as the ‘Cues Filtered Out’ or ‘Lost’ perspective.

More recently, researchers developed several theories that focus on the positive outcomes of CMC. These researchers belong to the group that says: Not good at making friends? Don’t worry! You’ll find plenty online. This is called the ‘Cues Filtered In’ or ‘Liberated’ perspective.

Now, I won’t explain the details of the two perspectives in this post, so if you want to know more about them I suggest you look up CMC-guru J.B. Walther. What is more interesting is that the two groups have been “arguing” ever since the Liberated perspective came into existence. Of course, it helped camp Liberated a lot that CMC has developed from being solely text-based to predominantly multimedia. A webcam conversation via Skype does sound like it gives a lot more opportunities for relationship formation than an email conversation.

My opinion? I think CMC is great and offers a lot of possibilities. It has made my life a lot easier in some aspects (e.g. by allowing me to send quick emails), but more difficult in others (like I told you about in one of my previous posts). But when it comes to Lost and Liberated, I can’t find myself in either. I’m just not interested in making new friends online; I use CMC to keep in touch with the friends I already have. So what does that make me?

If you are interested in finding out more about my experiences with discovering corporate communication, check out my previous blogs, click the follow button for regular updates, or follow me on Twitter.

See you soon!

Sandra

What the @#?!

I’ve tried. I really have. I have ploughed myself through dozens of tweets several times a day for the past couple of weeks; I have clicked on many (interesting) links provided in these tweets; I have even figured out what to do with these two: @ #. But I can’t escape the truth any longer: Twittering is just not for me.

What I feared would happen when I first signed-up for a Twitter account has inevitably happened.  I’ve spent hours (well, minutes at least) staring at my Twitter page, trying to figure out what to say to the world. Because that’s what Twitter is all about, right? It’s my medium for telling the world about my life, and how interesting and fun it is. Well, turns out my life just isn’t that interesting. Not for other people at least. Sure, I could tell you about how my train was delayed (again…), how busy I am with schoolwork, or how I had a great dinner with my friends (thanks to #appie), but would you really want to know? I know I wouldn’t.

So I have kind of given up on my goal to post at least one tweet per day and it’s quite a load off my mind. It’s weird actually, how easily you get drawn into the whole thing. Seeing all these people post new tweets every hour made me feel like I had to do so as well. How else would I keep my followers interested so they wouldn’t click the infamous “unfollow” button? This Twittermania has even led me to neglect my Facebook-account: there’s no way I have time to do both. But I have now come to the resolution that I’ll post something when and because I want to, not because I feel like I have to. It’s time to let the peer-pressure slide off me and spend just a little less time worrying about my online contacts and just a little more time with my offline contacts. It’s time to talk with people instead of to people. It’s time to be social again.

If you are interested in finding out more about my Twitter troubles or my other experiences with discovering corporate communication, check out my previous blogs, click the follow button for regular updates, or follow me on Twitter (where else?).

See you soon!

Sandra