technoculture314-09

With regards to social net-working there has been a new degree of phatic-communication, where social net-working has changed our social interaction. Phatic-communication is a term where individuals have conversations with others that are so trivial and lacking depth such as starting a conversation with someone at the bus-stop and talking about the 'weather'. To the untrained eye they seem meaningless, so it is worth asking ourselves why we do it. It can be argued phatic-communication arises from our desire to want to relate to anyone, any culture and any age, cautious that people are so different and topics such as the weather or sport are broad enough so anyone can engage with it on some level.

Lev Manovich in his book 'The Language of New Media' reiterates this notion using Roman Jakobson's model of 'communication functions', "as we say that communication comes to be dominated by contract or phatic function - it is centered on the physical channel and the very act of connection between addresser and adressee". This notion reaffirms the idea that people are often divided into one who starts a conversation and a receiver of the conversation, often shallow remarks that are used as something to initiate conversations, conversation starters that won't blindside people. Jakob writes how phatic-communication is a way to check whether the channel works, 'do you hear me?', 'do you understand me?'.

Manovich comments on how with web communication there is no adresser, simply the machine itself and the machine is in-fact addressing the user - "reminding the user of its existence". Due to web-communication the world of Phatic-communication alters, there is no need to check or be cautious about that beginning understanding between individuals. It is worth asking if the cautious nature of conversations has evaporated because the idea of an unsuccessful conversation can be eliminated without any threat? This leads to the idea of Web security, and being able to control what we say, articulate and have confidence because there is a sense of anonymity. Anonymity doesn't just exist for the initiator of the conversation but also the person their talking to, perhaps the idea of not being able to tangibly interact with the other user and be scared by appearance, intellect or culture this creates a security blanket. The notion of a new way of getting to know people over web communication has altered phatic-communication and thus altered our social interaction, perhaps making our social interaction more privatized in the way we users no longer have to tip-toe around social attachments of others.