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. 

Synchronous Vs. Asynchronous

So I'm posting Karen's response to this week's reading because unfortunately, she is unable to post the entry (it seems she doesn't have access to do so):

Hypothetically: you Skype your best friend who is overseas and haven't seen in ages. You two engage in a conversation, and end up catching up for hours without noticing the time. By now, it's dark outside (for you), and morning (for her) and just when you're signing off, you say: "We'll finish catching up through text". You finally leave, text your friend, and anxiously await her response. Given this scenario, you've just experienced synchronous communication. According to Sternberg, "Synchronous communication happens in what is often called 'real time,' when participants communicate with each other simultaneously. This involves being together in time (regardless of time zone), or...being temporarily co-present". Some modern day examples of this communication are Skype, FaceTime, etc.

Now it's been a week, and your friend still hasn't responded to your texts, You're in the process of reevaluating everything you've said in hopes that you haven't said anything too aggressive, offensive, or blunt. After your reevaluation, she randomly texts "Sorry, I've been so busy" and you decide to ignore the text (although knowing you'll reply later). This is asynchronous communication. You're choosing to respond to your friend whenever you please, and you're not actively being synced with her "thereness".

Sternberg's argument is pointing out that we have different levels of attentiveness to when things are happening in a synchronous versus asynchronous manner through computer mediated communication, and I agree. How awkward would it be if you're having a conversation with that SAME friend, and she says: "I apologize to inform you, but I will have to respond to that questions next week"? Not only is it too formal, but it's irrelevant, and it totally catches you off guard! Given this, it's obvious to say that social situations dictate how we use technology. Synchronicity plays into our understanding of communication and perceptive of permanence because it allows us to reassure some module of interaction (whether it be face to face conversations, text, email, etc.). Although all mediums are not used this way, one can still understand why humans have more synchronic encounters as opposed to asynchronous ones.

As for chapter 2, in Crystal, he emphasizes internet language as being identical to neither speech nor writing, but selectively and adaptively displaying properties of both. If you relate this back to what Sternberg was saying, CMC is like instant messaging. You're with that person in 'real time', and you send an instant text for the addressee to respond instantly because you're both together (not literally, but hypothetically). From a psychological perspective, we respond differently when we believe that person is actually with us, and vice versa. We tend to use emoticons, acronyms, tagging/latching markers like (mhm, yeah, right, etc.), and bad grammar when having these texting conversations because we're mocking speech. Although we're "typing", it's being portrayed as "writing", and although we're "speaking (consciously)", it's being portrayed as "texting". We're mocking speech in a sense that makes speech differ from writing, because it allows us to play with language in a way that is more convenient for us.  I don't speak in exceptionally well grammar (although I try), hence why it gives me the ability to show off my grammar skills while texting, and writing papers. From my experience, I catch myself saying LOL (el-oh-el) and ASAP (a sap) in actual conversations only because the abbreviations are so much more convenient as opposed to articulating the whole phrase, but what do you think? Do you agree with Crystal's point on internet language having "the best of both worlds" of speech and writing, or, how does our understanding of these concepts relate to our thought of permanence?

David Crystal's: Language Change & The Period

      I found it hard to believe that David Crystal's address on Misconceptions stated that there is a positive correlation between children who use textisms, text messaging abbreviations, and their literacy skills.  He states that the more abbreviations the higher they score on texts of reading and vocabulary, so the better the student the more likely are they to have more textism in their text messaging. Like many other readers this surprised me because I thought that the more abbreviations one uses in text messaging the less likely are you to have good literacy skills. I understand that we are somewhat innately given the processes to distinguish between words. Yet if a child repeatedly uses these abbreviations, then I assumed that their spelling, punctuation and grammar would be negatively affected. I feel that even if you have a good sense of the sounds and have good vision and memory, somewhat using these abbreviated forms constantly will deteriorate their correct learned ones. To continue, Crytal adds that we want to communicate to our textees so we grow sensitive to writing in LOL or BRB in short to say “laugh out loud” or “be right back.” What do you guys think? How does communicative intent/ interpretation come in par with texting? Somehow when we use these forms they are analyzed differently depending on the texter or textee. So be careful in what term you use LOL. How much time does BRB required to receive a text back from the sender? It is a play on semantics yet EMC has no limits. We need to establish a sense of understanding on EMC or much of our education is in caution!

     Chapter 4 covered how we use punctuation to mean certain things. We mark apostrophes when needed for clarity, exclamation point to intensify emotion, and capitalization for importance. The orthography used in texts make helps us make meaning from what we write. It also helps us know you better. We can somewhat tell what kind of personality, age, educational background, gender and so on from just how you write a text. According to Crystal, grammar in the Internet is restricted to a sociolinguistics point of view. Your grammar here depends on where you live, whom you’re around, and what situations could make you say things. The most interesting part for me was reading about the association that bloggers make when others read their post. I have never thought about this, but it is true that reading smaller chunks of words is easier for some, especially me. Although I don’t read blogs often, I tend to make my kindle book view a broader length so the text doesn’t seem bulky. When I do I find them to be in short paragraphs, which is exceptionally liberating to see, as formal reading tend to be lengthy and bulky. From a pragmatics point, the Internet violates the felicity conditions under the maxim of quality, quantity, relevance, and manner. Think about your spam mail, pop-ups, log in information, higher ranked web searches, and so on. They could be annoying, disrespectful, and could cost you time. In addition to making time or saving it, this chapter reminded me that texting is time consuming! Those of us who are caught texting and driving, texting abbreviations quickly to catch the train in the subway, or those of us who write lengthy text messages. Might as well just call the person.  Yes, it is a lot to think on, but we really should put thought into this type of communication.

     Finally, the piece on The Period focuses on how the period is seemingly used in an aggressive form, when in reality the true definition of a period is to end a sentence with a pause. I think it depends on who like to write their messages in certain ways. Are you the one to write text messages in complete sentences with all correct punctuation, or not? I use much more periods if I am writing to my boss, than writing to my boyfriend. I love using exclamation points for sarcasm and to show a lot of emotion, but when I am writing to a new contact I reframe on only using one exclamation point if and only if the other person replies with much more than one.  In all, I can’t imagine a world out from using periods; it’s my best friend and doesn’t make me more aggressive writer.  

"Whatever" & "Because Internet"

Baron's "Always on: Language in an Online and Mobile world chapter 8 "Whatever", reminds me that in this day and age using anytime type of digital platform we tend to forget or don't care so much about the rules of language.  As a millennial, I believe this might be true. We have a new approach to writing and speech than the people from "back in the day".

Baron describes this as "linguistic whateverism".  When I am receiving text messages, I am getting messages from the people I usually speak to in person. One might type the way they speak. I actually read in the message in their voice, if that makes any sense?  However, that being said, it seems like most people have rules to how they might send a text message or even an email. I think it's safe to say, that people will type an email depending on the receiver.  If any one knows teacher fellow C.N Madsen, he emphasizes on how we should type of emails to him or any professor/boss.However, I could be naive about this but shouldn't everyone know there are different writing styles for different settings?

Going into emails and writing them when and how, brings me to mention spellcheck. I want to believe I am a great speller but sometimes I can be sloppy and rely on spellcheck. Yes, when writing a final paper that actually might be published or reviewed by your professor, you'd like to make sure that everything is spell checked and grammatically correct. Then, there are times when your typing a text to your friend. How many of you just type whatever and ignore that squiggly red line under the word? Along with the grammatical sense of typing, we also have what's appropriate with writing emails.

I assume if some of us were in a relationship , all of us would not like to be dumped via email nor text. However, who makes it ok not to? I would think because we usually have a face-to-face relationship with that person it would be appropriate to at least have the audacity to tell them to their face! Maybe we need some rules about etiquette for when you should be able to write a condolences letter because your grandma passed away. Who knows if we have rules about it, would any of you follow them?


Now, discussing the article Because Internet seemed to be new to me. To my acknowledge, this is the first time I've ever seen this new preposition. Especially taking syntax this semester, this is last thing I need to learn about. Have we became that "lazy" to just simply write the actually whole reason? Because #internetmademewritelikethis.


For my last thoughts, the impact of internet language can be influential. I know that I'm one of those people who say "BRB" when I have to make a quick exit.  I've also had friends will say "LOL" when they're actually not laughing! Are all these abbreviations really necessary when speaking in person?

Naoimi Baron & "Why the Web Won't be Nirvana"

So this week's readings included an article written in 1995 about the internet, as well as some readings from Naomi Baron's book "Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World."

First, let me begin with the Internet Nirvana article. From what I understood in a nutshell: the internet is good, but like everything else, it is not perfect.  Clifford Stoll makes a great argument: even though the major appeal of the internet is that we are able to have everything and anything with the click of a mouse, we as a society are becoming more and more isolated. For example, in order to find out simple trivia, like how phonemes work (I decided to use this exampled since it's related to linguistics - bear with me!), all we have to do is turn on our computers and stroke a few keys. Lo and behold - we have an answer! Did we have to travel out of the comfort of our homes to a local library? Did we have to go through endless pages and encyclopedias to find this info? Not at all. However, did we ever communicate with another human during our search? Nope.  Nothing can ever be compared to human contact - knowing that there's someone out there who is in a similar situation.  Also, what if you feel so frustrated because you aren't able to find any good answers to what you're searching for? What do you do? You NEED to talk to someone who is an expert or who can sort of lead you in the right direction. With a computer, it's much more easier to feel  frustrated, making you want to punch it in the screen. If that happens, then guess what? 1- you may have broken your computer - congratulations; 2- you've gotten exactly nowhere; and 3- you still need to find that info. 

Of course, the internet does have many perks - find stuff instantly, not having to travel too far for certain items. Even when it comes to the basic bills - cellphone, cable, electricity, etc., etc. - we no longer have to send payment through snail mail.  We can easily log on to our accounts for the required companies, put in our credit/debit card information, and we have paid off our bills! Huzzah! Well, what if I have a question in regards to my monthly bill or my account, you ask? Simply log on to your account and click on the "chat online" button to "speak" directly with a representative!

I admit, I do love the internet when it comes to certain things. I mean, c'mon who wants to leave their house on their days off just to pay bills or make inquiries? I'm lazy and forever tired! But I will put my foot down for certain things, like language learning software (Rosetta Stone - I'm looking right at you!). Personally, that is one thing I will not purchase. I tried the free demo they have on their website and it literally sucked! Language learning is something I demand there be human contact.

Now, for Naomi Baron, author of "Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World," she mentions that among the people that are "'on' modern communication technologies, an increasing number are 'always on'" (pg. 4). Again, I will be honest and point out that I am a part of this group. I tell all of my friends and colleagues that the best way to get in touch with me is via email. Personally, I think emails are much more easier in regards to communication, as opposed to phone calls. With an email, you can go straight to the point, whereas I fell that with a phone call you MUST first go through the pleasantries in order not to look rude. Baron also points out that with the internet, anyone can now be a published author. Does it matter if they're self-published? Ehh, not really. I mean whichever way you're able to appear on a Google search is fine by me - just as long as it isn't because you got arrested or did something nasty!


Finally, I have come to Baron's last mention that really got me thinking: "the end of anticipation." Baron explained this phenomena as waiting for a family member or friend to come back from wherever they are and regale you with all of their adventures.  While I was reading this explanation, it made me think back to this past summer. I traveled to Paris and London (by myself) for the first time. HOLY CRAP it was ah-mazing, but I digress: The interesting thing is that while I was away, I spoke with my mom and sister every single day. Because there was a 6-and 5-hour difference, I had to specifically time my phone calls, as well as FaceTime chats. The main point? My family didn't have to wait for me to come back in order to find out what I did during my visits. I would constantly communicate with them via text messages/emails/video chats, you name it and I did it! One time, I video chatted with my mom and I showed her that it was nighttime in Paris, while she showed me that hot and sunny back in New York - totally freaked me out!

With the "end of anticipation," you are still in constant communication with the person that is away. So in a sense it's as if that person never really went away. Now is that a good or bad thing? Personally, I'm stuck...what's your opinion?