Bonus Assignment 12: Final Hurrah and the Crystal Ball

The Final Hurrah

For the amusement of all I must start off this final hurrah with a musical send-off from our very own Professor Hancock!

With laughter and fondndess in our hearts let us proceed to my last blog for Psychology of Social Computing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Crystal Ball

Unfortunately, I am not a gypsy fortune teller and cannot gaze into my crystal ball and reveal the future of the Internet and Psychology of Social Computing. Because of this I resorted to the predictions of an online crystal ball (http://predictions.astrology.com/cb/) and asked “What is the future of the Internet?” and the answer I received was “Think long and hard about that one.” And so I think I must.

While people’s behaviors may change and adapt for interactions more suited for CMC there are a few theories that I feel will always hold true. The first one is Goffman (1959) and Jung’s (1953) notion of “selves”. These selves include the ideal self (a self with qualities we strive to have), ought self (a self with qualities we feel we should have), actual self (the self we are now with the present qualities we express), and the true self (our inner self that has been yet fully revealed itself). I feel that this theory will not change because I believe that there are certain inherent traits that human beings have and I feel that this expression of “selves” is one of them. Everyone has a self that they present to the world, a self that no one sees, a self they thinks society wants them to be, and a self that we want to be.


Another theory that will hold true is the Self-Presentation Tactics. These tactics are the way in which people present themselves online and consist of self-descriptions, attitude expressions, nonverbal behaviors, social associations, and sets, props and lighting. These tactics are described below in an excerpt from class on September 6, 2007.

“Self-descriptions - Describing oneself in ways that convey a desired impression

Attitude expressions - Expressing attitudes that connote that one possesses certain attributes

Nonverbal behaviors - Facial expressions, gestures, body positions and movement

Social Associations - Publicly associating oneself and dissociating oneself with particular others

Sets, props, and lighting - Using aspects of the physical environment for self-presentation purposes”

Even if in the future people become more adept at online interactions I think that people will still use these self-presentation tactics to make themselves appear in a favorable light. As long as people feel the need to impress others or desire others to feel a certain way, people will resort to these tactics to help achieve their sought after goal.

The one theory that the future may bring a change to is the Social Information Processing Theory by Walther (1993).This theory states that sharing information takes longer in CMC because of the lack of cues. SIP also supports that over time the transmission of information in CMC can reach the same level of FtF. This theory has the greatest ability to change because as things become more of the norm in society then people adapt to that particular new style of living and such. Electricity was once uncommon, but as its usefulness and convience increased so did its usage. The same can be said for the internet. And it is my belief that when larger amounts of people are accustomed to CMC interactions then people will find a way for these interactions to mean or convey more. By adapting to CMC I feel that the amount of time it takes for the transmission of information in CMC to equal that of FtF would shorten dramatically and or eventually become obsolete.

A new issue with the use of technology and the internet that society has been beginning to experience are the legal issues involved with it. I do not mean issues like music piracy, but rather more similar to the articles we have shared in class where people inflict emotional abuse and such over the internet. An example of this is one we discussed in class when a mother in the same neighborhood played as a boy to spy on the daughter of another family. Said mother eventually broke off the relationship and the daughter committed suicide. The girl’s family looked for some punishment for the mother, but there were no laws that applied to this situation. I believe that these situations will only increase, not decrease, for the immediate future and I feel that these issues will have to be addressed. As these issues are dealt with I think it is something that the class should begin to cover. Other than occasional articles our class did not talk much about Internet crime and I think it might be an interesting topic to include in the class.

Well, that’s it. I had a great time in Psychology of Social Computing and hopefully will have another class just as informative and enjoyable!

Thanks for reading my last blog!

Lauren McLemore