technoculture314-09

This article connects with some of the issues we'll be discussing this coming week.

The concepts of the death of distance and intimacy at a distance piqued my interest because they reminded me of the relationship I have with my best friend. While we met in person, our relationship takes place almost exclusively via the internet because my friend and I both suffer from bouts of crippling anxiety in the physical company of others. The so called death of distance is certainly true in our case since he cannot bring himself to see me more than a couple of times a year, and when we do neither of us is comfortable, but we communicate extensively online almost every day. What makes our relationship possible is precisely that distance, our mediated intimacy allows us to communicate fluidly in a way that would be impossible were there not a buffer between us. While the idea of intimacy at a distance is highly problematic as it poses serious questions about whether our interaction is becoming somewhat watered down and perhaps even made too easily digestible in the technological age, we must not lose sight of the fact that these technological developments also have the potential to have exactly the opposite effect. People who are unable to have meaningful relationships due to anxiety disorders are able to use the mediation and distance online communication provides to develop intimate relationships they may never have thought possible before the advent of the internet. While this in no way makes up for the lack of physical contact and face to face interaction, it is a valuable source of meaningful contact that many people would otherwise go without. In no way do I mean to imply that the internet does not have huge potential for detrimental effect on human relations but I felt that the last couple of lectures and readings had been utterly depressing that a reminder on the positive effects of new media was overdue.

With relation to some of the information that was presented in lectures and tutorials on gender; it got me thinking. Some elements of communication are lost and gained by in the online world and and some elements are also gained. This is also apparent in texting. An element which could be lost (maybe others would disagree) is that of conveying tone in digital communication. One finds it increasingly harder to express tone of voice and ofcourse body language in texts. A simple exclaimation mark does not have the same effect as stressing a point or yelling at a person during a face-to-face conversation. It is through this that a sense of ambiguity is created partially due to the fact that the persons facial expressions or voice is not present to be studied by the receiver. This leads to sometimes people not fully understanding what the sender truely meant in their texts. Such as 'You're funny' is almost impossible to differenciate in text communication yet in a face-to-face conversation it is much easier to understand the context based on the senders supposed 'truth-value' in the voice or the sarcasm. This is also relevant to things such as email or online chat amongst others.
Now to Gender, i havent done extensive research in this area obviously but i would like to mention some things which i have noticed amongst the texting and online interaction of my friends. With many of my male friends, the texts or online chats (very rare) seem to be directed at instructions or information texts. Such as what time i can meet them, If they are coming to class etc. So the texts and responses are very short and informative, much like the new craze of 'Tweets'. However with many of my female friends the texts received are often much longer almost reaching the 160 character limit and tend to include information and as well as 'culture' or 'well-being' texts to ask how i am, When i am able to see them etc. The texts from the female friends seem to be more open ended and question like. However whilst writing this i have just realised that there is only a one-way overlapping in that i respond to my female friends texts often as i would to my male friends with one word responses and information (Intrestingly this often angers them) However i do not respond to my male friends in the way my female friends text me. So even though there is two genders texting me, the response is always solo gendered and not catered for both genders.