NVC & CMC

1. NVC & CMC Nonverbal Communication and Computer Mediated Communication

2. In person communication differs from online communication • Media richness • Message complexity, bandwidth, rate of exchange • Degree of formality • Slang, profanity, misspellings • Synchronicity • synchronous vs. asynchronous exchanges • Response latency • Context cues • Situation, setting • Hierarchy • vertical vs. flat • Anonymity • poseurs, pseudonymity, nonymity or nonymous • Privacy • Controllability of information about oneself

3. Face-to-face (FtF) interaction is nonverbally rich • FtF includes eye contact, facial expression, gestures, vocal cues, posture, touch, and smell • All mediated communication impedes nonverbal cues in one way or another. • Some media are richer than others • chatrooms • texting • Skype • Mediated communication has fewer affective (emotion, feeling) cues

4. Varieties of CMC • Email • Texting • Instant Messaging • Chat rooms • Discussion forums • Fan sites • Online support groups • Facebook • Twitter • Skype • LinkedIn • Message boards • Second Life and other virtual environments

5. Impersonal nature of CMC • To what extent does nonverbal communication operate online? • Fewer nonverbal cues • Fewer context cues • It is more difficult to develop closeness without nonverbal cues • Some scholars argue that the lack of nonverbal cues in mediated channels limits the depths of relationships • Has Facebook diluted the concept of “friendship”?

6. Social Displacement, Disinhibition, and the Hyperpersonal model • Social displacement hypothesis (Kraut, 1998; Nie, 2001). • time spent online trades off with FtF interaction • most studies failed to confirm this; CMC does not alienate people from real-life relationships. • Disinhibition effect: internet users are more likely to disclose personal information than those in FtF settings. • The hyperpersonal model contends that “receivers stereotype and idealize their partners when they receive messages” (Walther, 2006, p. 465). • Internet users project their own anticipated nonverbal messages onto a conversational partner to compensate for the lack of cues

7. Social Presence Theory • The degree of salience (importance, awareness) of others; a sense of “being there” between two communicators • Online communication reduces social presence. • Nonverbal cues assist in establishing and maintaining social norms. • Absent social context cues, people act in less inhibited, less socially acceptable ways • YouTube video by a UCLA student complaining about Asians in the library.

8. The Dark Side of CMC • CMC is less rule-governed than FtF. • Actual and perceived anonymity of online environments encourages negative behavior. • Infidelity; cyber-affairs • Greater jealousy (Muise, et al .2009) • Flaming • Cyber-bullying • Hate speech • Loss of privacy • Web tracking • Cyber-stalking • Trolling • Scams, fraud, identity theft • Cyber-dumping • Cyber-firing

9. Learning about perceived anonymity the hard way • Anthony Weiner tweeted pictures of his “package” to everyone. • Massachusetts high school teacher was fired over Facebook comments about students.

10. Cyberbullying • High profile cases: • 2010: Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman, committed suicide after being “outed” as gay via streaming video. • 2010: Phoebe Prince hanged herself after being tormented online by students at South Hadley high school. • 2008: Jessica Logan, 18, hanged herself after an ex-boyfriend circulated nude cellphone pictures she “sexted” him. • 2006: Megan Meier, age 13, killed herself after the jealous mother of a created a fictitious identity to harass her. Tyler Clementi Phoebe Prince

11. Cyberbullying and teen suicide • Overall, teen suicides have decreased 28% in recent years, however: • A survey by Campus Pride of 5,000 college students who are GLBT found that nearly one in four reported harassment. • victims of cyberbullying report that threats are as realistic and disturbing as face-to-face situations (Aricak 2009).

12. Email, Texting • Salutations • None, personal, impersonal, too personal • Dr. Gass, Mr. Gass, Hey Doc • Clarity, writing style • typoesadnmisteaks can ruin you’re credability. • How revealing are grammatical and typographical errors? • “What is the floormat (format) for the paper?” • Important messages deserve a spell-check. • Font choice, ALL CAPS • Forwarding emails • Response time • Autocorrect and auto-completion: • Hey boss, I’ll be aroused (around) later this afternoon • Text-speak and LOL-speak • Reply to all • Receipt requested • Out of office reply • High importance • Signature, sign offs • Best regards, Cheers, Take care • quotations • Legaleeze

13. What is wrong with this email?

14. Legaleeze • I received happy birthday wishes from a friend who is a jury consultant with the following fine print at the end of the email. • Such legaleeze makes the message less warm, friendly, personable • PRIVACY RIGHTS OR EXPECTATIONS, THE ATTORNEY-CLIENT AND/OR THE ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT PRIVILEGES PROTECT THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS FACSIMILE MESSAGE.  IT IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE REVIEW AND USE OF THE INDIVIDUAL NAMED ABOVE, AND THE PRIVILEGES OR PROTECTIONS ARE NOT WAIVED BY VIRTUE OF THIS DOCUMENT HAVING BEEN SENT BY FACSIMILE.  IF THE PERSON ACTUALLY RECEIVING THIS FACSIMILE OR ANY OTHER READER IS NOT THE NAMED RECIPIENT, OR AN EMPLOYEE OR AGENT RESPONSIBLE FOR DELIVERING IT TO THE NAME RECIPIENT, ANY USE, DISSEMINATION, DISTRIBUTION OR COPYING OF THIS COMMUNICATION IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.  IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS COMMUNICATION IN ERROR, PLEASE IMMEDIATELY NOTIFY US BY TELEPHONE AND RETURN THE ORIGINAL FACSIMILE TO US AT THE ABOVE ADDRESS BY FIRST CLASS MAIL.  YOU SHOULD DESTROY ANY COPIES THAT WERE MADE.  THANK YOU.

15. Compensating • Internet users compensate for the lack of nonverbal cues in other ways • Emoticons • Text-speak; LOL reports a feeling or emotion • Humor, irony, sarcasm are easily confused absent nonverbal cues • But does it work? • Is an e-card as meaningful as a physical card? • Emoticons • Limited range of emotions, lacking in nuance • May be disingenuous • LOL • Gender differences • Women use emoticons far more than men • Contradictions between words and emoticons • With the exception of sarcasm, words tend to be more believable than emoticons

16. Cyber-dumping • People use CMC as an easy way out for communicating negative information • Harder to be mean in FtF communication • Messages can be worded more carefully than in FtF contexts • Emotional reactions, backlash can be avoided • Asymmetrical nature of negative CMC • If Tammy dumps Lloyd via a text, it will be easier on her, but harder on him. • Lloyd may be even more humiliated, may perceive Tammy is insensitive

17. The self vs. the virtual self • Employers now access Facebook to screen job applicants • 70 percent of recruiters and hiring managers in the United States have rejected an applicant based on online information. • Poorly written posts • drinking, drug use • risqué pictures • discriminatory comments • Bad-mouthing previous employer or workplace • Flame wars on discussion boards • Impression management on the web. • Email and user names are verbal (text, words) but the images they convey are nonverbal as well. • nightstalker@aol.com • hankypanky38@hotmail.com • Photographs may be carefully selected and manipulated

18. Identity management online • Facebook is a computerized form of identity management • Users attempt to project a favorable self image • Online personas may differ from real life actors

19. Online deception • Online stalking, trolling • Phishing scams • Identity theft • Dating websites on which people post old, inaccurate pictures of themselves. • “You weren’t bald on your web picture.” • “You weren’t 30 years old either!”