Computer Mediated Conversation
The various texts are talking about the internet & how it is changing the world, socially. There are people who are looking at the negative aspects of social interaction through the internet, but a different aspect is presented in these texts/
E-mail has become an accepted norm of communication. In fact, it is even being promoted as a means of communication by various educational institutions. Besides, social communities which were fast disappearing are again coming up because of this social networking. One concern is that there is no human interaction, so there may be no scope for human empathy. The discussions in these social forums & internet are not totally useless, but rather lots of important issues are critically discussed. In fact, they give a voice to those who may not be very comfortable talking in person. People are quite passionate about their life, their friends & their interactions on the net. The romance on the net is also a kind of fantasy. Though some people may take internet romancing as a kind of stepping stone to meeting a person in real/
The focus in all but one of the passages is on the positive aspects of social networking & e-messaging.
All texts begin with the initial hiccups to accepting internet as a communication medium, but then zero down on the multitude of benefits accruing from it. There are facts & figures to support their statements. “But Stanford's Richard Holeton, who tracked e-mail discussions of first-year students in one dorm, found that 87 percent of their messages involved important social or critical dialogue. Those issues included ·pornography, free speech, a potential grape boycott on campus and asexual-harassment allegation: says Holeton.” (Branscum. 1997).
With the advent of nuclear families, communities are breaking up very fast. There are many reasons for this. But everybody is well aware of the benefits of community living. Social networking is one way in which people can once again enjoy the benefits of community living.
A strong ingredient of community living is interacting with people. A strong counter argument here is that people are only interacting through the electronic medium. This is a virtual world. Hence there is a question mark on the humaneness of interactions.
Whenever interactions take place, they will be of all kinds. They will be intellectual, spiritual, or simply friendly interactions. The interactions may be professional or hot & personal. The personal interactions may take two forms. People may want to meet in real life or they may simply keep these interactions as a sort of virtual fantasy.
Such interactions are very personal & dear to people. At one time, the world of internet appeared to be cold & distant. But now, these interactions & these social networks have become very dear to people.
It is a bit surprising at first as to how relationships & communities can be built by using a computer screen. But the fact is that communication via the internet is happening today. It is happening, it is rocking, & to top it all, even educational institutes are asking for assignments to be submitted by e-mail. Which means that e-messaging is being promoted due to the various advantages being perceived by the people around.
