Coye Cheshire & Andrew Fiore April 19, 2023//

Computer-Mediated Communication

CMC in Society

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Course business

Join the mailing list! cmc@ischool.berkeley.edu Instructions in the News section here:

http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i290-12/f07/

Annotate at least one reading per week Critical response, not summary

Office hours Tue + Thu 2–3 p.m. in 305A South Hall

04/19/23 Computer-Mediated Communication — Cheshire & Fiore 3flakybiscuit

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Web 3.2 is here NOW

Vs.

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Rheingold’s Study: An Early Online Community

(Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link)

At this time, geography still played an important role because of BBSes (local telephone access)

Less use of pseudonyms (identity persistence) Less initial distrust

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What is an online/virtual community?

Social Spaces

Role-playing

Professional Groups

Work-related discussion groups

Medical and Illness support groups

Geographically related groups

Tech/Software Support

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Virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.

Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community

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Potential “to change our lives”Rheingold (1995)

Political change (aggregate social level)

Person-to-person interaction(interpersonal interaction level)

Perception, thoughts, personalities (individual level)

Macro

Micro

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The Internet as Panopticon?The Internet as Panopticon?

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The Promise of the Internet as a Social Network

Accessibility of Networks

Usefulness of Networks

Multiplexity of Networks

Strong ties

Weak ties

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How do we know if the ‘promise’ is being fulfilled?

How is Internet use related to general social interaction?

How does offline interaction relate to online interaction?

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Studies of Physical Communities and Internet Use

Syntopia project (1995–1997; 2000)

HomeNet (1998; 2002)

Netville Studies (e.g., Hampton and Wellman 2003)

Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) 2003

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They argue that research design contributes somewhat to different results.

“

”—  Rice et al. (2007)

on Shklovski et al. (2006)

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Differences in research design

Cross-sectional vs. longitudinal(vs. experiments?)

How are variables operationalized?

Where did the sample come from? Syntopia: national random-digit dialing OxIS: geographic, by district then by address

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US data

In 1995, Internet use (including longer term) associated with more social interaction with friends.

Making more phone calls and writing letters not really associated with Internet usage, controlling for socio-demographic factors.

Those with more Internet expertise tend to be more likely to be members of at least one online community and to have met at least one friend online.

In 1995 data, more online social interaction is not related to more offline social interaction.

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US: Informational vs. social use

1995 2000

Interaction with family online 42% 23%

Membership in online communities 26% 10%

Developing online friendships 12% 14%

Meeting online friends in person 17% 10%

Are early adopters more interested in socializing online?

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British Data

Internet users are less likely than non-users to write letters to friends and family who live far away.

However, Internet users are more likely to meet with far-away friends and family (offline).

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Sociability

Most analyses do not show a relationship between Internet usage and offline interpersonal interaction. (Sociodemographics better account for any relationships.)

In 1995, Internet usage does appear to be related to more social interaction, but by 2000 Internet experience appears to account for more social interaction.

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Internet use Sociability

Internet use

Sociability???

OR

ExtroversionSES???