Identity Presentation on the Internet

In Naomi Baron's chapter, "Presentation of Self," she talked about how people present themselves to others using the AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and Facebook platforms. For AIM, she specifically cited the away messages people would publish when they were either too busy to talk, or didn't wish to be bothered by certain people. I really like how she said that "people consciously or unconsciously present themselves to others as if they were actors on a stage," because it's really true. On digital platforms, such as AIM and Facebook, people only publish what they wish for others to see.

For AIM, the main categories that away messages fall under are:

• Denotative - stating the obvious (say, for example, that you put your away message as "gone to the store.")
• Connotative - stating something with a subjective meaning (such as "in class, shoot me now!" The reader of your away message can then interpret this as saying that you don't want to be in class.)

 Of course, some people just put their away messages for the sake of not wanting to talk to certain people on their buddy list. However, it is interesting to see that even though AIM has a default away message ("I am away from my computer right now"), many people do not use it. Instead they go through their own creative processes to come up with an away message that closely resembles their attitude and liking.

This brings me to another thing: if someone logs on and automatically reverts to an away message, why are they even on in the first place? Baron says this is because the person wants to have control over who they speak to, which I think is true. I remember when I used to log on to AIM constantly (this was a few years back), I would sometimes just put an away message even though I was not busy and available to talk. This enabled me to choose who I wished to speak to, and ignore those that I didn't. Again, the keyword is control.

Besides AIM, Baron also took a crack at Facebook (back in its infant years); back to when you had to be either a high school or college student to create an FB account (because it required you to give your .edu email address).

First off, let me begin by going on a mini-FB rant: what is the point of having hundreds or even thousands of friends? Do you really talk to them constantly, or is it more like a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of thing? Wouldn't you rather have a small list of friends, but know them completely, as opposed to thousands of friends whom you speak with every few months, or worse, never? What about getting friend requests from total strangers? Now personally, in FB I've gotten a lot of friend requests from people I've never met, but they send me a request because we have a mutual friend. I usually end up denying the requests mainly because I don't know the person! I prefer to have an offline connection with a friend/mutual acquaintance first, and then have them connected via social networks. I mean, what if the person turns out to not be who they said they were? There are some pretty crazy people out there - always be safe! Sometimes, I feel as if FB is a popularity contest, just like Baron noted, "what matters is that they [friends on FB] pile up." Don't even get me started on "poking". Don't poke me, better yet, send me an FB message, or if you have my number, send me a text!

In all, Facebook allows its users to be in charge of how they wish others to view them, and even who has the privilege to see their profiles.Most FB users wish for others to see them as socially desirable and easy to approach ("popular, well-rounded, thoughtful, etc." as Zhao et al. notes in their article, "Identity Construction on Facebook"). Many people do this by adding specific information about themselves in their profiles, such as pictures with friends on a night out, or the various countries they've visited or wish to visit one day. They can also select what kind of music, books, TV shows, and music they prefer.

What do you think? Do you agree with Baron and Zhao et al.'s comments? What's your take on AIM away messages? Did you create your own or did you use the default one? How often did you put your "away" status, and were you really away at that time? If you have [or had] FB or any other social media platform, is there a specific selection process you use[d] when approving friend requests?

Computer Mediated Communication / Discourse

Computer medicated communication is any communication done by humans through multiple devices. Cmc is also referred to as cmd computer mediated disclosure is a form of writing. What medium the writing is done though reflects on a persons setting. Social, professional and educational are suppose require different forms of communication. Have you noticed how I word this, making sure to include suppose to. The reason is because in today's society people mostly young adults don't know the difference of how to communicate. Communicating has unwritten rule that a lot of people don't know. It's more like a common sense kind of approach that should be taken. I personally think the rule of thumb should be when in doubt always communicate professionally. Even on my job I'll hear people approach my manager in an unprofessional way. (Are they that comfortable?) Maybe they feel comfortable to do so but I personally believe it is best to always maintain a professional approach to things and to keep a certain distance. The same would be true for an educational setting. For me keeping things professional shows respect not only for the person but for there position above you.
 
 Speech communication for me overrides writing communication for me. Actually face to face communication is the best medium. Nothing beats looking in someone face and seeing their emotions while they talk. Like take sarcasm for example when discussed in class how do we show sarcasm through texting one said they capitalize letters, put quotation marks or even just type with no extra emphasis. This makes me think bad and wonder if my friends have ever been sarcastic with me. Being that I never really take note on these thing. Like today I was texting a friend of mine and I hit the capitalize but for one word and failed to take it off forth enemy and I ended up writing through rest of the conversation in capital letters. She must of thought I was yelling or being sarcastic throughout out the hole conversation. In testily I was just lazy. This issue would not arise if we were talking face to face or even verbally through the phone.
 
The second reading made me really look back a couple of years in time and really disgust what our generation has come to with technology. Email was considered the default mode of communication through devices. Can you imagen sitting and waiting to get an email (picture with dial up connection) Awwwwww No.

New social conventions

  Nowadays, most of the people look at their phones every single moment. They check their e-mail, facebook. According to Baron, they are turning on volume. On the other hand, if you ignore the incoming calls, stop talking to people on facebook chat, you are said to be turning down the volume. In Baron's point of view, volume control refers to the frequency of contact or the restrictions on access.

   Baron pointed out that people are conducting non-face-to-face communication frequently. We write letters, using answer machine, and IM to avoid talking to people we hate face-to face.Although you may be friend with the person you hate on IM, you can block him or her so that they will not be able to see you.

    Another point regarding the communication between people nowadays is multitasking. Baron pointed out that multitasking is becoming popular among adolescents and young adults. Baron pointed out how people perform several tasks as the same time. In a study, when people attempt to attend strictly to a single task, they are often distracted by other cognitive demands. When comes to computer, Barons recalled her memory that one of her students said that computers are naturally multitasking devices. Baron compared using computer with driving, describing how we perform multi-tasks during driving. Baron pointed out the advantage of multitasking enabled the students to accomplish several activities at simultaneously especially when they are short in time. Some students also said that they carry out more than one task when they are bored. However, when conducting face-to-face or telephone conversations, students believe that it is not appropriate for multitasking because they believe it is rude not to give your full attention to someone face to face.

      

      Personally, I do feel that people nowadays rely on phone more than before. Phone brings us convenience and fun. Therefore, we communicate by phone rather than face-to-face. However, it can be good sometimes especially you do not want to talk to the people you hate face-to-face. Talking through the phone, you do not have to see them, when you really do not want to talk to them, you can make up a situation to refuse to talk to them such as saying that you are busy. Through the phone, speaker on the other can’t really know what you are doing.

       In Gerogakopoulou’s article, he pointed out that CMC is in the intersection of writing and oral discourse. The study that he put in his article focuses on how specific resources, captured by the term “code-alternations” are strategically drawn upon by participants to meet local context requirements and how their situated use provides for certain understandings of performed activity of email by looking at Greek and English e-mails. When looking at the e-mails, the switch between English and Greek can be seen. Code-alternation prove to be the most important and frequently used contextualization cues. Code-alternation shows that the participants are intimate with each other. Meanwhile, code-alternations are frequently part of the expression of request and apology. When code-alternation is used, the participants have to have shared knowledge.

     

     Honestly, I use code-alternation most of the time. I switch between English and Chinese or English and Korean. This is done in an informal conversation. So, this only happens when talking to the people who are closed to me. When we are typing a formal e-mail, such as a job application, it is not a good idea to switch back and forth between two languages.