CMC is very different than face to face communication and in many ways that are not as obvious as things like the absents of nonverbal cues. One thing that i like about CMC is that there is a lot more time to respond to messages. This can often lead to more thought out responses that might otherwise be hasty. Time gives you more time to think and even a chance to read and respond at a time when you are in a better mood or have less distraction. I know I write better and am in a better mood when I am at home, so most of my computer communication brings out a better side of me. People who know me online might guess me to be more sophisticated than people who are meeting me in person.
Another big plus for me in the realm of CMC vs face to face is the fewer instances of fundamental attribution error. I think we make a lot more judgments about people's character than we know. When we see a certain type of clothing or hear a way of speaking we tend to attribute that to a persons character unfairly. This can be a big distraction. This reminds me of my 7th grade year of school year when I switched from a uniformed catholic school to a public one. I had always heard that we were wearing uniforms because free dress was a distraction, but I never knew it to be true until I was a victim of this distraction. I was not a very well liked person in my school and often teased for my clothing. It took a long time to make friends because my classmates assumed I was weird just for dressing a certain way. These particular mistakes of character are not made in computer based communication.
Hello Midwest! I enjoyed reading your post on f2f and CMC communication. I really liked your first paragraph on CMC as I agreed with a lot of the points you had made. I also do think CMC is very beneficial simply because you have more time to think about how and what to respond in a corrective manner. Sometimes, I always see myself in a bit of a "mind-fart" and don't know how to respond when the person is in front of my face waiting for a response. However, with CMC, I would have a lot more time to not feel as pressured, and really think about a detailed response that I can explain in words rather than in a verbal manner. I completely agree with you when you say that time does in fact give you more time to think and have a chance to respond with less distractions. You are able to answer questions without pressure, and depending on your mood, the answer will probably be better if you have the relaxation to respond in a timely manner.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your second paragraph on these two types of communication. Face to face does have an increased likeliness to judge people even if we don't know them which can ultimately interfere with the process of communication. I like how you mentioned the judgements that we may have depending on the way someone dresses or speaks. It does make us view the character unfairly which can lead to big distractions. Because CMC doesn't require you to look at the person you are talking to, there are a lot less distractions for you. Thus, you are able to respond in a non-judge mental manner to the other person you are communicating with.