Please join us for a discussion every Tuesday at 12PM noon SL (US Pacific Time)
This Tuesday, Sept 29, we will be at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™
Click here to teleport to the Epoch Institute in Second Life™
This Week’s Topic
How do we understand the personality and background of people through online communication? This question appeared at the end of last week’s session. Sometimes people wonder “Do you know the real me?” from online communication. Sometimes we hope that others see only a projection of a person we hope they will see.
How do we build a picture of a person from online communication, whether through purely written forms or virtual worlds? Are there stages of development in communication that are recognizable and consistent? As we spend more time online, does our ability to project ourselves change and develop in sophistication, in ways that may parallel communication development in children, and does our ability to interpret the cues of online communication develop over time? What are the typical developmental patterns, if they are common?
After a while trying to find really relevant reading links, I was surprised to come up pretty much empty handed on these topics, but that is intriguing in that maybe we can break some new ground. I wonder if the concept area is too new for research to have been done, perhaps there is limited commonality, or perhaps it’s a topic that is considered taboo by commenters.
Casual conversation online and in virtual worlds suggest that people do recognize these patterns, and have mental models of how they work. Can we capture some of them in a way that provides a useful picture for enhancing online communication?
Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon SL, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!
(via JoelFoner.com)
