Transcript NVC & CMC Vs. FtF

NVC & CMC
Nonverbal Communication and
Computer Mediated Communication
In person communication differs from
online communication
 Media richness
 Message complexity,
bandwidth, rate of
exchange
 Degree of formality
 Slang, profanity,
misspellings
 Synchronicity
 synchronous vs.
asynchronous exchanges
 Response latency
 Context cues
 Situation, setting
 Hierarchy
 vertical vs. flat
 Anonymity
 poseurs, pseudonymity,
nonymity or nonymous
 Privacy
 Controllability of
information about oneself
Face-to-face (FtF) interaction is
nonverbally rich
 FtF includes eye contact, facial
expression, gestures, vocal cues,
posture, touch, and smell
 All mediated communication
impedes nonverbal cues in one way
or another.
 Some media are richer than others
 chatrooms
 texting
 Skype
 Mediated communication has fewer
affective (emotion, feeling) cues
Varieties of CMC
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Email
Texting
Instant Messaging
Chat rooms
Discussion forums
Fan sites
Online support groups
Facebook
Twitter
Skype
LinkedIn
Message boards
Second Life and other virtual
environments
Impersonal nature of CMC
 To what extent does nonverbal
communication operate online?
 Fewer nonverbal cues
 Fewer context cues
 It is more difficult to develop
closeness without nonverbal cues
 Some scholars argue that the lack
of nonverbal cues in mediated
channels limits the depths of
relationships
 Has Facebook diluted the concept
of “friendship”?
Social Displacement, Disinhibition, and
the Hyperpersonal model
 Social displacement
hypothesis (Kraut, 1998;
Nie, 2001).
 time spent online trades off
with FtF interaction
 most studies failed to
confirm this; CMC does
not alienate people from
real-life relationships.
 Disinhibition effect:
internet users are more
likely to disclose personal
information than those in
FtF settings.
 The hyperpersonal
model contends that
“receivers stereotype and
idealize their partners
when they receive
messages” (Walther, 2006,
p. 465).
 Internet users project their
own anticipated nonverbal
messages onto a
conversational partner to
compensate for the lack of
cues
Social Presence Theory
 The degree of salience
(importance, awareness) of
others; a sense of “being
there” between two
communicators
 Online communication
reduces social presence.
 Nonverbal cues assist in
establishing and maintaining
social norms.
 Absent social context cues,
people act in less inhibited,
less socially acceptable ways
 YouTube video by a UCLA
student complaining about
Asians in the library.
The Dark Side of CMC
 CMC is less rule-governed than FtF.
 Actual and perceived anonymity of
online environments encourages
negative behavior.
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Infidelity; cyber-affairs
Greater jealousy (Muise, et al .2009)
Flaming
Cyber-bullying
Hate speech
Loss of privacy
Web tracking
Cyber-stalking
Trolling
Scams, fraud, identity theft
Cyber-dumping
Cyber-firing
Learning about perceived anonymity
the hard way
 Anthony Weiner tweeted
pictures of his “package” to
everyone.
 Massachusetts high school
teacher was fired over Facebook
comments about students.
Cyberbullying
 High profile cases:
 2010: Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers
University freshman, committed suicide
after being “outed” as gay via streaming
video.
 2010: Phoebe Prince hanged herself after
being tormented online by students at
South Hadley high school.
Tyler Clementi
 2008: Jessica Logan, 18, hanged herself
after an ex-boyfriend circulated nude
cellphone pictures she “sexted” him.
 2006: Megan Meier, age 13, killed herself
after the jealous mother of a created a
fictitious identity to harass her.
Phoebe Prince
Cyberbullying and teen suicide
 Overall, teen suicides have
decreased 28% in recent years,
however:
 A survey by Campus Pride of 5,000
college students who are GLBT found
that nearly one in four reported
harassment.
 victims of cyberbullying report that
threats are as realistic and disturbing
as face-to-face situations (Aricak
2009).
Email, Texting
 Salutations
 None, personal, impersonal, too
personal
 Dr. Gass, Mr. Gass, Hey Doc
 Forwarding emails
 Response time
 Autocorrect and auto-
completion:
 Clarity, writing style
 Hey boss, I’ll be aroused (around)
 typoes adn misteaks can
ruin you’re credability.
 How revealing are grammatical
and typographical errors?
 “What is the floormat (format)
for the paper?”
 Important messages deserve a
spell-check.
 Font choice, ALL CAPS
later this afternoon
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Text-speak and LOL-speak
Reply to all
Receipt requested
Out of office reply
High importance
Signature, sign offs
 Best regards, Cheers, Take care
 quotations
 Legaleeze
What is wrong with this email?
Legaleeze
 I received happy birthday wishes
from a friend who is a jury
consultant with the following fine
print at the end of the email.
 Such legaleeze makes the message
less warm, friendly, personable
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PRIVACY RIGHTS OR EXPECTATIONS, THE
ATTORNEY-CLIENT AND/OR THE ATTORNEY
WORK PRODUCT PRIVILEGES PROTECT THE
INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS FACSIMILE
MESSAGE. IT IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE
REVIEW AND USE OF THE INDIVIDUAL NAMED
ABOVE, AND THE PRIVILEGES OR PROTECTIONS
ARE NOT WAIVED BY VIRTUE OF THIS DOCUMENT
HAVING BEEN SENT BY FACSIMILE. IF THE PERSON
ACTUALLY RECEIVING THIS FACSIMILE OR ANY
OTHER READER IS NOT THE NAMED RECIPIENT,
OR AN EMPLOYEE OR AGENT RESPONSIBLE FOR
DELIVERING IT TO THE NAME RECIPIENT, ANY
USE, DISSEMINATION, DISTRIBUTION OR
COPYING OF THIS COMMUNICATION IS STRICTLY
PROHIBITED. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS
COMMUNICATION IN ERROR, PLEASE
IMMEDIATELY NOTIFY US BY TELEPHONE AND
RETURN THE ORIGINAL FACSIMILE TO US AT THE
ABOVE ADDRESS BY FIRST CLASS MAIL. YOU
SHOULD DESTROY ANY COPIES THAT WERE
MADE. THANK YOU.
Compensating
 Internet users compensate for the
lack of nonverbal cues in other
ways
 Emoticons
 Text-speak; LOL reports a feeling
or emotion
 Humor, irony, sarcasm are easily
confused absent nonverbal cues
 But does it work?
 Is an e-card as meaningful as a
physical card?
 Emoticons
 Limited range of emotions,
lacking in nuance
 May be disingenuous
 LOL
 Gender differences
 Women use emoticons far
more than men
 Contradictions between words
and emoticons
 With the exception of sarcasm,
words tend to be more
believable than emoticons
Cyber-dumping
 People use CMC as an easy
 Asymmetrical nature of
way out for communicating
negative information
negative CMC
 Harder to be mean in FtF
a text, it will be easier on
her, but harder on him.
 Lloyd may be even more
humiliated, may perceive
Tammy is insensitive
communication
 Messages can be worded
more carefully than in FtF
contexts
 Emotional reactions,
backlash can be avoided
 If Tammy dumps Lloyd via
The self vs. the virtual self
 Employers now access
Facebook to screen job
applicants
 70 percent of recruiters
and hiring managers in the
United States have rejected
an applicant based on
online information.
Poorly written posts
drinking, drug use
risqué pictures
discriminatory comments
Bad-mouthing previous
employer or workplace
 Flame wars on discussion
boards
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 Impression management on
the web.
 Email and user names are
verbal (text, words) but the
images they convey are
nonverbal as well.
 [email protected]
 [email protected]
 Photographs may be carefully
selected and manipulated
Identity management online
 Facebook is a computerized
form of identity
management
 Users attempt to project a
favorable self image
 Online personas may differ
from real life actors
Online deception
 Online stalking, trolling
 Phishing scams
 Identity theft
 Dating websites on which
people post old, inaccurate
pictures of themselves.
 “You weren’t bald on your
web picture.”
 “You weren’t 30 years old
either!”