Thursday, October 15, 2009
Week 8 - Communicative Situations 1: Computer Mediated Communication
I've always been a firm supporter of technology and subsequently, increasing the number of modes of communication. However, I've personally categorised Facebook as an evil/harmful/useless mode of communication. Of course, the following arguments are my own opinions and are not attacks on the creator and users of Facebook.
Technology has enabled us to communicate to others in an unprecedented way, where physical boundaries have been transcended and completely eliminated. We can use Email, MSN and/or Skype to communicate with our loved ones overseas, professors/tutors/students in schools/institutions, etc. etc. How has Facebook served this function? Yes, Facebook allows users to track their friends' movements, send messages and share photos. But most users don't seem to be using such functions. (This is my own observation.) If a friend is close to you, you wouldn't need to use Facebook to see what he/she is doing, since he/she would tell u either face-to-face or via SMS/MSN which are modes of "closer" communication. However, if the friend is not close to you, then why are you tracking his/her movements? People are becoming obssessed with "collecting" friends and competing with who has more friends on their network. At the same time, they use Facebook to "spy" on people. Of course, one can limit his/her profile to only close friends but how many people actually do that? Can anyone say that he/she does not have a single non-close friend in his/her network? Well, maybe human beings are voyeuristic?
Some time ago, I travelled to Kuala Lumpur via Tiger Airways. Unfortunately, the (stupid!) flight was delayed and we were made to wait 4 hours. A lot of the passengers then used the computer terminals with free internet access at the waiting area to while away time. On the way to the Ladies, I walked past the whole area of computer terminals and I noticed that 50% to 60% of the people were accessing Facebook! I then decided to call a friend and chat via handphone and I was on a much higher utility curve when chatting with a friend using the good-old-fashioned, but intimate way. =)
Technology has enabled us to communicate to others in an unprecedented way, where physical boundaries have been transcended and completely eliminated. We can use Email, MSN and/or Skype to communicate with our loved ones overseas, professors/tutors/students in schools/institutions, etc. etc. How has Facebook served this function? Yes, Facebook allows users to track their friends' movements, send messages and share photos. But most users don't seem to be using such functions. (This is my own observation.) If a friend is close to you, you wouldn't need to use Facebook to see what he/she is doing, since he/she would tell u either face-to-face or via SMS/MSN which are modes of "closer" communication. However, if the friend is not close to you, then why are you tracking his/her movements? People are becoming obssessed with "collecting" friends and competing with who has more friends on their network. At the same time, they use Facebook to "spy" on people. Of course, one can limit his/her profile to only close friends but how many people actually do that? Can anyone say that he/she does not have a single non-close friend in his/her network? Well, maybe human beings are voyeuristic?
Some time ago, I travelled to Kuala Lumpur via Tiger Airways. Unfortunately, the (stupid!) flight was delayed and we were made to wait 4 hours. A lot of the passengers then used the computer terminals with free internet access at the waiting area to while away time. On the way to the Ladies, I walked past the whole area of computer terminals and I noticed that 50% to 60% of the people were accessing Facebook! I then decided to call a friend and chat via handphone and I was on a much higher utility curve when chatting with a friend using the good-old-fashioned, but intimate way. =)
2 comments
on my GEK1036 Cross Cultural Communications and Discourse