Over the past two years at Cornell, I’ve spent the majority of my time doing one of four things (in no particular order); sleeping, studying, socializing, and talking with my girlfriend by phone, and internet. I’d like to focus on the fourth topic for the purpose of this assignment. Since coming to Cornell, I’ve been faced with the task of trying to make a long distance relationship work. While the phone and internet are no substitute for face to face communication, these media have allowed the relationship to flourish in a seemingly unfavorable situation.
Our relationship varies from relationships that McKenna and Wallace have looked at because our relationship began before going away to college. We spent a few years getting to know each other and dating in FtF before moving to much more CMC. For this Assignment I’ll be looking at whether or not Wallace’s hypotheses for interpersonal attraction through CMC apply to relationships that start in FtF and move to CMC. Wallace takes a look at CMC on the internet. She separates this into four categories: physical attraction, proximity, common ground, and disinhibition effects.
The first component Wallace looks at is physical attractiveness. This is the most influential category as the stereotype is so strong. In the words of Wallace, “The physical attractiveness stereotype is so pervasive and potent that it affects our attitudes about others in almost every setting.” In FtF, people meet based on looks, and then get to know a person. This is the opposite in CMC where there are no images attached, as the people get to know each other and then meet and see each other’s looks.
This subject is very interesting, yet somewhat dated as Wallace’s work was published in 1999. Prior to 2000, the internet was still in its infancy, and, with dial-up connections, the thought of uploading photos and streaming video was still mostly a thing of the future. Thus, when Wallace is describing CMC meeting, she isn’t referring to social networking sites of today such as Myspace and Facebook which allow users to post videos and photos of themselves. This phenomenon re-introduces the attractiveness leading to getting to know another into CMC. My relationship also follows this new phenomenon closely as we met in person (physical attractiveness) and then began to get to know each other intimately later on.
Turning our attention to proximity, the common thought on FtF proximity is that familiarity flows from location. This means that the closer together you are to each other, the more likely you will become close to the other person. CMC is slightly different, stating that familiarity flows from intersection frequency which is the amount of times you meet or bump into each other online. This could come in the form of wall posts on Facebook mixed with instant messaging or interaction in chat rooms.
With regards to my relationship, since it began with FtF, it originated through familiarity through common location. For example, we shared the same homeroom and saw each other every morning. Now that we’re an hour apart, we rely on intersection frequency, such as phone communication and instant messaging to keep our proximity close. In conclusion, while Wallace’s opinions don’t all necessarily apply to today’s online world, they still create foundations for others to build upon and apply to different situations.
2 comments:
On a more sentimental note, Its nice that its so important to you to maintain and nurture your relationship! It was interesting how you weaved in all of Wallace's factors into how it applied to your situation. I think your example of mixing face to face communication and CMC is extremely common. Wallace and McKenna dont really delve into describing a mixed relationship per se, they tend to focus on one or the other. It would be interesting if someone described some factors that facilitate relationships that involve communication in borth virtual and actual realities.
Nice job writing an interesting post. You set up your analysis very well with background information and plenty of definitions. This post would make perfect sense to someone that is not in the class. I wrote about a similar topic (although with regards to a friendship) and we had fairly similar experiences. One thing you could have added to provide a little more depth is to expand on how the nature of your relationship has had to adjust because of the changes in proximity and physical attraction factor. For instance do you have to make much more of an effort to instant message each other than when you’d see each other in homeroom?
Post a Comment