After reading ALL of chapter 6, I get to the sentence in the summary that says "Technological affordances intersect with personal, social and cultural influences in ways that lead to media use meaning different things to different people in different relationships at different times" and I thought "I could have just read this one sentence and not the whole dang chapter and gotten the exact same thing out of it". Then I relize it DID say to just read the summary. But, since I did read the whole chapter, I'll make a comment on one or two points. At one point she talks about online relationships and how we "fill in the gaps" from what few cues we get from the other person. I used to live in Florida and worked at a compute dealer fixing computers. I got to know a woman via the phone at the Univ of Florida who would call to arrange to get computers fixed. They would send them to us, I'd fix them, and then send them back. She had a very sexy voice (and you can guess where this is going, but I'm gong to tell it anyway) and each time she called I just imagined a young, attractive, tanned young lady on the other end and did all I could do to keep her talking. When I finally met her 6-8 months later, as you've guessed, she wasn't quite what I imagined she was. She was considerably older than me and not all that attractive looking. God forbid I should see her on the beach. Anyways, this was back in the earlie 80's before small businesses had Internet access or email. The only cues about her I got was her voice and her willingness to talk about the university and her work. Not quite enough to form an accurate picture of what she looked like or her age.
Later in the chapter it talks about how "SNSs allow exchanges more emotionally risky than people would brave face to face", like what was mentioned in our earlier reading for blog 4 about texting (52% of respondents report sending text message to say something they wouldn't say face to face)
(You were in fact supposed to read the whole chapter--there is lots of important detail there. It was Lenhart et al 2010 where you were supposed to read the summary & chs. 2&3--this is the Pew report on teens & texting).
ReplyDeleteGreat example of how we form impressions based on limited cues!
Yes, hours of social networking does occupy time and space that leads to unfinished goals. But, I feel that internet relationships are a false hope of gaining a close intimate relationship. Althought, alot of married couples met on the internet.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that you wanted to get to know her because you gave her a chance via internet, goes along with what Byam's theory supports saying that we are more likely to reach out socially when you otherwise would not have, when you get to know them through cell phone or the internet.
ReplyDeleteLOL That was funny but a good way to use cues men make that mistake all the time. Just like when they see a woman from the back and thinks just because she has a nice shape she's cute in the face. Stop judging so quickly. lol
ReplyDeleteI think the internet is a medium that can change the way that people connect. For instance, say you meet someone out one night and they end up splitting up with you before you can get a number, all they need is your name and they can find you online. The internet can help contiune relationships that would have otherwise fizzled out, keep going. For example I knew a girl who met a guy on a vacation in Vegas... Yes... Vegas... and they skype chatted like every night for a year... not they have moved in with eachother and are planning on getting married... without the internet it would have just been some fling in Vegas...
ReplyDeleteI think that you hit right on with your illustration of digital expectations. I have had friends like this before, and before meeting them, I always seemed to have a level of expectation. Things they would wear, to the facial structure or whatever. The digital world really creates a superficial america.
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