DIGITAL SELF AND DIGITAL OTHERS

What we’ll be looking at over the next three sessions Interpersonal communication

Team collaboration The online expression and

exploration of sexuality and alternative cultures

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Seminar 1

What we’ll be looking at this week What is Communication What is Computer Mediated

Communication (CMC) Why research CMC in a virtual world Affordances Gender and communication Cultural variances On- and off-line effects of avatar

appearance

What is Communication

1. When you meet someone, you develop a set of expectancies about the other person.

2. You then act toward the person in a way that is consistent with your expectancies.

3. The other person interprets the meaning of your actions.

4. Based on this interpretation, the other person responds.

5. You then interpret the meaning of the other person’s response.

DARLEY, J. M. & FAZIO, R. H. (1980) Expectancy confirmation processes arising in the social interaction sequence. American

Psychologist, 35 (pp. 867-881

http://unix.temple.edu/~susanj/jou55/model.jpg

What is Computer Mediated

Communication (CMC) and why

research it? Main areas of research in relation

to communication include the effects of: The absence of social context cues

(i.e. Body language, facial expressions)

Anonymity Gender and culture

Next is an excellent video that explains the changes to written communication that have been brought about by the advent of hypertext

Pub

lished

in T

he N

ew

Yorke

r Sep

tem

ber

12

, 20

05

How does computer mediation affect communication?The ‘real-world’ communication tools most often affected by computer mediation and environmental affordances include: voice gestures facial expression body

Grounding changes with the medium1. Co-presence2. Visibility3. Audibility4. Contemporality5. Simultaneity6. Sequentiality7. Reviewability8. Revisability

AffordancesAffordance Theory – J.J Gibson

Perception of the environment leads to some course of action

Affordances of VWs which affect communication include:

the ability to use and/or make Gestures the ability and extent to which an avatars

appearance can be customised the extent to which an avatar can be

animated and whether the environment uses text,

speech or a mixture of the two

http://www.learning-theories.com/affordance-theory-gibson.html

Disinhibition

The freedom afforded by virtual environments along with diminished visual and auditory clues and the narrow bandwidth of communication can result in a state of, what has been described as disinhibition (Joinson, 2003)

Culture and CMC

Cultures may draw on different channels of communication for conversational grounding

Cultures may differ in interactional goals, making different media more or less appropriate

Understanding interactions between culture and CMC is important for: • Building theories of collaborative technologies • Designing tools for global distribution and/or

cross-cultural communication

http://www.engr.udayton.edu/faculty/wsmari/cts06/CTS2006%20Lucheon%20-%20Notes.pdf

Cultural Variances and Variables

PDI IDV MAS UAI LTO0

102030405060708090

Hofstede DimensionsComparison Australia/World Average

Australia World Average

http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_australia.shtml

Other Cultural Variances

Context The extent to which information is made explicit or is

assumed High-context culture

Proxemics Clothing Emotes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8199951.stm

JACK, R. E., BLAIS, C., SCHEEPERS, C., SCHYNS, P. G., & CALDARA, R. (2008) Cultural Confusions Show Facial Expressions are Not Universal Current Biology,

(in press)

Gender and Communication

The following video, while not strictly about communication is an interesting piece of gender

research conducted in Second Life.

• The major reason women present as men in online environments is so they won’t get hassled

• The main reason men present as women is because they feel people are nicer to them and more likely to give them things (particularly relevant in a gaming environment) (Bruckman, 1993).

• Gendered communication styles carry over into virtual environments

• The anonymity or pseudo anonymity of virtual environments results in increased assertiveness for many women (Rodino, 1997).

• When voice is available it presents a challenge for those who are presenting in the environment as a different gender or who prefer to present as gender neutral.

On- and Offline Effects of Avatar Appearance

Creating an avatar is an act of visual communication

What does YOUR avatar say about you? Inworld appearance can impact real life

behaviour

Key Points Computer mediated communication is pervasive in

Western society The use of virtual worlds for socialising, work and

education is increasing Affordances will differ according to the environment Verbal and non-verbal cues may be altered or missing in

CMC which may result in disinhibition Overall, gendered communication styles carry over in

virtual environments ‘Inhabiting’ an avatar of a different race or culture will

not necessarily provide you with an accurate experience of what it is like to come from a different race or culture and may, in fact, reinforce cultural stereotypes

Avatars appearance can act back on the real-life behaviour

Further Reading BECKER, B. & MARK, G. (2002) Social Conventions in Computer Mediated

Communication: A Comparison of Three Online Shared Virtual Environments. In

SCHROEDER, R. (Ed.) The Social Life of Avatars. Surrey, UK, Springer.

NAKAMURA, L. (2001) Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on

the Internet. In TREND, D. (Ed.) Reading digital culture: Keyworks in cultural studies; 4.

Malden, Mass.; Oxford, Blackwell Publishers.

SLATER, M. & STEED, A. (2002) Meeting People Virtually: Experiments in Shared Virtual

Environments. In SCHROEDER, R. (Ed.) The Social Life of Avatars. Surrey, UK, Springer.

YEE, N. (2007) THE PROTEUS EFFECT: BEHAVIOURAL MODIFICATION VIA

TRANSFORMATIONS OF DIGITAL SELF-REPRESENTATION. Communication. Palo Alto, CA,

Stanford

YEE, N. & BAILENSON, J. (2006) Walk A Mile in Digital Shoes: The Impact of Embodied

Perspective-Taking on The Reduction of Negative Stereotyping in Immersive Virtual

Environments. (Electronic Article).

http://vhil.stanford.edu/pubs/2006/yee-digital-shoes.pdf, [date accessed] 8 November

2007

YEE, N., BAILENSON, J. N., URBANEK, M., CHANG, F. & MERGET, D. (2007) The

Unbearable Likeness of Being Digital: The Persistence of Nonverbal Social Norms in Online

Virtual Environments. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(1), 115-121.

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2006.9984

Further Reading Journal of Computer Mediated Communication

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/ SHERWIN, J. (2007) Get a (Second) Life Studying Behavior in a

Virtual World. Observer. Association for Psychological Science, (Online Journal). http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2179, [date accessed] 12 August 2009

DANET, B. (1996) Computer-Mediated Communication. Jerusalem, Hebrew University, (Online article). http://pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msdanet/cmc1.htm, [date accessed] 12 August 2009

MARVIN, L.-E. (1995) Spoof, Spam, Lurk and Lag: the aesthetics of Text-based Virtual Realities. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. Play and Performance in CMC ed. Indiana, International Communication Association, (Online Journal). http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/120837658/HTMLSTART, [date accessed] 12 August 2009

References Cited in this Presentation BRUCKMAN, A. (1993) Gender Swapping on the Internet. The Internet Society. San Francisco,

(Conference paper). http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/Computing/Articles+ResearchPapers/gender-swapping, [date accessed] 15 August 2009

GACKENBACH, J. & STACKELBERG, H. V. (2007) Self Online: Personality and Demographic Implications. In GACKENBACH, J. (Ed.) Psychology and the Internet. Burlington, MA, Elsevier.

HALL, E. (1966) The Hidden Dimension, Anchor Books. JACK, R. E., BLAIS, C., SCHEEPERS, C., SCHYNS, P. G., & CALDARA, R. (2008) Cultural Confusions Show

Facial Expressions are Not Universal Current Biology, (in press) JOINSON, A. N. (2003) Understanding the psychology of Internet behaviour : virtual worlds, real lives,

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, Palgrave Macmillan. MCLUHAN, M. (2001) Understanding media: The extensions of man. London ; New York, Routledge. NAKAMURA, L. (2001) Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet. In

TREND, D. (Ed.) Reading digital culture: Keyworks in cultural studies ; 4. Malden, Mass. ; Oxford, Blackwell Publishers. PHILIPCHALK, R. P. & MCCONNELL, J. V. (1994) Understanding human behavior, Forth Worth, Tex.,

Harcourt Brace College Publishers. RODINO, M. (1997) Breaking out of Binaries: Reconceptualizing Gender and its Relationship to Language

in Computer-Mediated Communication Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. Annenberg, University of Southern California, (Electronic Journal). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue3/rodino.html, [date accessed] 18 August 2009

TAYLOR, T. L. (2002) Living Digitally: Embodiement in Virtual Worlds. In SCHROEDER, R. (Ed.) The Social Life of Avatars. London, Springer-Verlag.

YEE, N. & BAILENSON, J. (2007) The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior. (in press in Human Communication Research). http://www.nickyee.com/pubs/Yee%20&%20Bailenson%20-%20Proteus%20Effect%20(in%20press).pdf, [date accessed]

Video Links

CMC general http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=oAEIiguKAYU Animations and gestures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-3c_aC-O4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WplYhxyFd3M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WKo4G8aQBc