This article was surprisingly interesting given the amount of data and research presented. One of the main points argued by the authors is that online interactions are less likely to encourage the development of a relationship that will be sustained when compared with face-to-face interactions or phone calls. I do agree with this statement given the criteria used by these authors to label online interactions; their data mostly included emails and listservs, but video-chat as the form of online interaction is likely to be more effective than a telephone call. Video-chat would be as close as one could come to a f2f interaction; this is because one can hear the other party’s voice, like in a telephone call, and one may also be able to pick-up the other party member’s nonverbal communication signs such as: body language, facial expressions, movements, or even hesitations during the conversation. I know I feel closer to my “cyber-friend,” (whom I’ve never met in person, but had skype conversations with numerous times) than several of my friends I’ve met in the real world; I would argue this is due to the illusion of closeness caused by video chat.
Not only do the authors argue that online interactions are less effective for developing and sustaining relationships, but they also claim that listservs are less effective when a member’s goal is establishing a sense of belonging or identity with the group than a small group of people offline. I agree with the authors here because I consider myself to be far less connected with my Comm 101C classmates, (who all received the same listserv as me) than the any of the students I’ve ever had in f2f classes. The authors’ claim that lack of interactions through the listserv is exactly my reasoning for why I felt disconnected from my fellow online students two years ago.
~T
The points you make in your article about face to face interactions and video chatting are very true. I didn’t think about video chatting as an “online social relationship”. There are many ways we can interact now online that we did not have even a year ago. I know Facebook just added the video chat feature recently with Skype. But even then your limited with the interaction because you may not see body language during video conversations. It can be easy to step out of the video frame to avoid making faces or showing discomfort. I know that I only video chat with family and friends but websites like Chatroulette always people to chat with random people around the world. I also agree with you that is hard to connect with fellow online students.
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