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Think we've touched on this subject to an extent in other threads, it's certainly something I've give a lot of thought to anyway.
Basically ... how do they compare, what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
It would seem to me that face to face communication between two people, involving eye contact, would be the most useful and expressive way. We have it built into our brains to subconsciously read body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and speech tendancies such as stuttering or stumbling over words. But then again, these signals can be misread ... a person may be stumbling over their words because they are nervous, but there can be many reasons for this etc. People may not always act themselves due to nerves etc.
Next we have the humble phone call. Body language and facial expressions become irrelevant, it is all about the tone of voice and speech tendencies (I don't know if tendencies is the right word here or even spelt correctly, but just go with it :). But it is possible to make a connection with someone through only hearing their voice, perhaps not as much as it is in person, but certainly there is some connection there.
And now we come to online communication, be it through IM's, e-mail, online forums or anything in between. Note, I am not including webcam sessions here, they are somewhere in between being in person and making a phone call. Though text message could probably be included as it is fairly similar.
No body language, no tone of voice, in fact almost complete anonymity. You don't really know who you are talking to unless you have met them before. So how does it affect communication? Many things can be misinterpreted or misunderstood .. as I think cjh was saying it's so easy to let these things snowball into arguements, and I often wonder if they would have got that way were the people in the same room as each other.
There are advantages though ... it is possible to say exactly what you want to, sit down and think each reply through carefully, cover all the points and give a true representation of your opinion. Where as in person you may not have the confidence to say everything, or you may be interupted etc by others. In this way you can sometimes have a more deep and meaningful conversation with people, where you might normally feel uncomfortable about it. Of course that isn't always a good thing. I know I for one have been guilty of using this in a negative way ... to say things normally I might bite my tongue over, or to get into discussions normally I would avoid.
Jeez that went on far longer than I thought ... your views please though if you're still awake ... :)
Basically ... how do they compare, what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
It would seem to me that face to face communication between two people, involving eye contact, would be the most useful and expressive way. We have it built into our brains to subconsciously read body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and speech tendancies such as stuttering or stumbling over words. But then again, these signals can be misread ... a person may be stumbling over their words because they are nervous, but there can be many reasons for this etc. People may not always act themselves due to nerves etc.
Next we have the humble phone call. Body language and facial expressions become irrelevant, it is all about the tone of voice and speech tendencies (I don't know if tendencies is the right word here or even spelt correctly, but just go with it :). But it is possible to make a connection with someone through only hearing their voice, perhaps not as much as it is in person, but certainly there is some connection there.
And now we come to online communication, be it through IM's, e-mail, online forums or anything in between. Note, I am not including webcam sessions here, they are somewhere in between being in person and making a phone call. Though text message could probably be included as it is fairly similar.
No body language, no tone of voice, in fact almost complete anonymity. You don't really know who you are talking to unless you have met them before. So how does it affect communication? Many things can be misinterpreted or misunderstood .. as I think cjh was saying it's so easy to let these things snowball into arguements, and I often wonder if they would have got that way were the people in the same room as each other.
There are advantages though ... it is possible to say exactly what you want to, sit down and think each reply through carefully, cover all the points and give a true representation of your opinion. Where as in person you may not have the confidence to say everything, or you may be interupted etc by others. In this way you can sometimes have a more deep and meaningful conversation with people, where you might normally feel uncomfortable about it. Of course that isn't always a good thing. I know I for one have been guilty of using this in a negative way ... to say things normally I might bite my tongue over, or to get into discussions normally I would avoid.
Jeez that went on far longer than I thought ... your views please though if you're still awake ... :)
Think we've touched on this subject to an extent in other threads, it's certainly something I've give a lot of thought to anyway.
Basically ... how do they compare, what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
It would seem to me that face to face communication between two people, involving eye contact, would be the most useful and expressive way. We have it built into our brains to subconsciously read body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and speech tendancies such as stuttering or stumbling over words. But then again, these signals can be misread ... a person may be stumbling over their words because they are nervous, but there can be many reasons for this etc. People may not always act themselves due to nerves etc.
Next we have the humble phone call. Body language and facial expressions become irrelevant, it is all about the tone of voice and speech tendencies (I don't know if tendencies is the right word here or even spelt correctly, but just go with it :). But it is possible to make a connection with someone through only hearing their voice, perhaps not as much as it is in person, but certainly there is some connection there.
And now we come to online communication, be it through IM's, e-mail, online forums or anything in between. Note, I am not including webcam sessions here, they are somewhere in between being in person and making a phone call. Though text message could probably be included as it is fairly similar.
No body language, no tone of voice, in fact almost complete anonymity. You don't really know who you are talking to unless you have met them before. So how does it affect communication? Many things can be misinterpreted or misunderstood .. as I think cjh was saying it's so easy to let these things snowball into arguements, and I often wonder if they would have got that way were the people in the same room as each other.
There are advantages though ... it is possible to say exactly what you want to, sit down and think each reply through carefully, cover all the points and give a true representation of your opinion. Where as in person you may not have the confidence to say everything, or you may be interupted etc by others. In this way you can sometimes have a more deep and meaningful conversation with people, where you might normally feel uncomfortable about it. Of course that isn't always a good thing. I know I for one have been guilty of using this in a negative way ... to say things normally I might bite my tongue over, or to get into discussions normally I would avoid.
Jeez that went on far longer than I thought ... your views please though if you're still awake ... :)
Basically ... how do they compare, what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
It would seem to me that face to face communication between two people, involving eye contact, would be the most useful and expressive way. We have it built into our brains to subconsciously read body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and speech tendancies such as stuttering or stumbling over words. But then again, these signals can be misread ... a person may be stumbling over their words because they are nervous, but there can be many reasons for this etc. People may not always act themselves due to nerves etc.
Next we have the humble phone call. Body language and facial expressions become irrelevant, it is all about the tone of voice and speech tendencies (I don't know if tendencies is the right word here or even spelt correctly, but just go with it :). But it is possible to make a connection with someone through only hearing their voice, perhaps not as much as it is in person, but certainly there is some connection there.
And now we come to online communication, be it through IM's, e-mail, online forums or anything in between. Note, I am not including webcam sessions here, they are somewhere in between being in person and making a phone call. Though text message could probably be included as it is fairly similar.
No body language, no tone of voice, in fact almost complete anonymity. You don't really know who you are talking to unless you have met them before. So how does it affect communication? Many things can be misinterpreted or misunderstood .. as I think cjh was saying it's so easy to let these things snowball into arguements, and I often wonder if they would have got that way were the people in the same room as each other.
There are advantages though ... it is possible to say exactly what you want to, sit down and think each reply through carefully, cover all the points and give a true representation of your opinion. Where as in person you may not have the confidence to say everything, or you may be interupted etc by others. In this way you can sometimes have a more deep and meaningful conversation with people, where you might normally feel uncomfortable about it. Of course that isn't always a good thing. I know I for one have been guilty of using this in a negative way ... to say things normally I might bite my tongue over, or to get into discussions normally I would avoid.
Jeez that went on far longer than I thought ... your views please though if you're still awake ... :)
People tend to say more online and even to express their far wilder opinions than they would face to face. This is due to not feeling so accountable for their opinions, hiding behind a username.
But then text based opinions can be misread and without the vocal inflextion or body language, so there is a greater risk of being misunderstood, which can cause arguements in a forum such as this.
So there is a balance here between a much greater expression of opinion and the issue of not being understood, both combined can be very powerful or very dangerous. It's still a valid and useful forum (no pun intended) for airing an opinion though.
As for general communication, it's wonderful. You can IM friends and family in other countries and as the only alternative is a costly phone-call or a slow letter via snail mail then it's really the only option. For day to day chat, a forum is excellent for making online friends and talking to people from other countries that you may never have visited or even thought about. All of this can broaden the mind so much and it certainly isn't possible or practical with other offline methods.
But then text based opinions can be misread and without the vocal inflextion or body language, so there is a greater risk of being misunderstood, which can cause arguements in a forum such as this.
So there is a balance here between a much greater expression of opinion and the issue of not being understood, both combined can be very powerful or very dangerous. It's still a valid and useful forum (no pun intended) for airing an opinion though.
As for general communication, it's wonderful. You can IM friends and family in other countries and as the only alternative is a costly phone-call or a slow letter via snail mail then it's really the only option. For day to day chat, a forum is excellent for making online friends and talking to people from other countries that you may never have visited or even thought about. All of this can broaden the mind so much and it certainly isn't possible or practical with other offline methods.
pb wrote:
> People tend to say more online and even to express their far
> wilder opinions than they would face to face. This is due to
> not feeling so accountable for their opinions, hiding behind a
> username.
Yeah people defenetly say alot more online. Sometimes too much...
> People tend to say more online and even to express their far
> wilder opinions than they would face to face. This is due to
> not feeling so accountable for their opinions, hiding behind a
> username.
Yeah people defenetly say alot more online. Sometimes too much...
Seraphim wrote:
> Yeah people defenetly say alot more online. Sometimes too
> much...
Guilty :(
> Yeah people defenetly say alot more online. Sometimes too
> much...
Guilty :(
I feel that I can communicate better when I’m online. I don’t feel that communicating is my strong point though. I think it depends on whom I am communicating with, rather then, whether they are online or offline.
I can communicate and get my thoughts, feelings and opinions across better online or when I write them down, rather then been interrupted by someone with there opinions mid conversation.
I like to express myself and can go in to more detail when I’m online.
I can communicate and get my thoughts, feelings and opinions across better online or when I write them down, rather then been interrupted by someone with there opinions mid conversation.
I like to express myself and can go in to more detail when I’m online.
Borat wrote:
> It would seem to me that face to face communication between two
> people, involving eye contact, would be the most useful and
> expressive way.
It gets your true feelings across as it's very hard to hide them through all your expressions (tone of voice / looking away etc) but in situations where it's probably better to bite your tongue and hide your true feelings until you've thought them through it can be a disadvantage.
> Next we have the humble phone call. Body language and facial
> expressions become irrelevant, it is all about the tone of voice
> and speech tendencies (I don't know if tendencies is the right
> word here or even spelt correctly, but just go with it :). But
> it is possible to make a connection with someone through only
> hearing their voice, perhaps not as much as it is in person, but
> certainly there is some connection there.
Same as the last point really but only through tone of voice.
> And now we come to online communication, be it through IM's,
> e-mail, online forums or anything in between. Note, I am not
> including webcam sessions here, they are somewhere in between
> being in person and making a phone call. Though text message
> could probably be included as it is fairly similar.
Online communication can be very hard to grasp and novices can not realise that other people may misinterprete what they have typed and there can be a lot of misunderstanding and upset caused.
However online friendships are good in that it gives people a much wider range of people to talk to these days.
> It would seem to me that face to face communication between two
> people, involving eye contact, would be the most useful and
> expressive way.
It gets your true feelings across as it's very hard to hide them through all your expressions (tone of voice / looking away etc) but in situations where it's probably better to bite your tongue and hide your true feelings until you've thought them through it can be a disadvantage.
> Next we have the humble phone call. Body language and facial
> expressions become irrelevant, it is all about the tone of voice
> and speech tendencies (I don't know if tendencies is the right
> word here or even spelt correctly, but just go with it :). But
> it is possible to make a connection with someone through only
> hearing their voice, perhaps not as much as it is in person, but
> certainly there is some connection there.
Same as the last point really but only through tone of voice.
> And now we come to online communication, be it through IM's,
> e-mail, online forums or anything in between. Note, I am not
> including webcam sessions here, they are somewhere in between
> being in person and making a phone call. Though text message
> could probably be included as it is fairly similar.
Online communication can be very hard to grasp and novices can not realise that other people may misinterprete what they have typed and there can be a lot of misunderstanding and upset caused.
However online friendships are good in that it gives people a much wider range of people to talk to these days.
Sometimes it's fun to go on Xbox Live and swear at people.
True story.
True story.
How come I never noticed these types of conversation before I had to blog them?
Even in face to face situations communication can go awry. Something can be mis-interpreted or only half heard and then a heated conversation can follow until the error is realised or both parties agree to disagree.
Online it is indeed harder but, again, you can have the same ways as above to settle the arguement. Plus smilies help a lot - they can take the sting out of an insult to show that the comment was meant in jest.
Okay, my final uni module is about on-line communities in general and they set up a private forum on the uni servers for us students to use. When asked to read the forum rules and suggest what is important a lot of them said to respect other users opinions (pfft!) and be careful not to say anything which could cause upset (which can be where your communication comes into it). I disagreed and said that banter, humour and opinions are important to an online forum, even if arguements do arise an apology could be all that is needed to ease the tension.
Think I may have gone off track in the last paragraph...
The main disadvantage of communicating on-line and not being able to see who you are talking to is the fact that they can pretend to be anything or anyone. In fact Garin said in another post somewhere else that most of the time people should just engage their brain before hitting 'post this message' :)
Even in face to face situations communication can go awry. Something can be mis-interpreted or only half heard and then a heated conversation can follow until the error is realised or both parties agree to disagree.
Online it is indeed harder but, again, you can have the same ways as above to settle the arguement. Plus smilies help a lot - they can take the sting out of an insult to show that the comment was meant in jest.
Okay, my final uni module is about on-line communities in general and they set up a private forum on the uni servers for us students to use. When asked to read the forum rules and suggest what is important a lot of them said to respect other users opinions (pfft!) and be careful not to say anything which could cause upset (which can be where your communication comes into it). I disagreed and said that banter, humour and opinions are important to an online forum, even if arguements do arise an apology could be all that is needed to ease the tension.
Think I may have gone off track in the last paragraph...
The main disadvantage of communicating on-line and not being able to see who you are talking to is the fact that they can pretend to be anything or anyone. In fact Garin said in another post somewhere else that most of the time people should just engage their brain before hitting 'post this message' :)