scholarly journals Identity, Community, and Technology: Reflections on the Facebook Group Inuit Hunting Stories of the Day

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-224
Author(s):  
Alexander Castleton

In this article I reflect on a particular Inuit use of the social networking site Facebook: the group called Inuit Hunting Stories of the Day. I focus on two main issues. First, I discuss the logic behind current technologies as conceptualized by Albert Borgmann (e.g., 1984), who states that rather than being neutral tools, modern devices foster a particular “taking-up” with the world that leads to disengagement from community and meaningful practices. Arguing against this view, I discuss how Inuit Hunting Stories of the Day is an example of how the internet and Facebook are appropriated and provide meaningful engagement. Second, I follow anthropologist Claudio Aporta’s (2013) notion of ecology of technology and argue that the relationship between technology and Inuit has to be understood within an ecological framework that encompasses the broader context of political, economic, and social change, which are intertwined with the use, appropriation, adoption, and adaptation of technology. Drawing from the ecology of technology perspective, it is my central argument that technology and computer-mediated communication bring proximity to cultural practices, activities, and the land rather than provoking distance and alienation from reality, as commonly expressed in dystopian notions.

Author(s):  
Youjeong Kim

In computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments, users utilize their avatars as a communication channel to interact and connect with others, and they choose and create them accordingly to represent their self. As such, several major question areas arise: 1) As an extension of identity, how does a user customize his/her avatar? How is the avatar's appearance related to the avatar creator's self-concept? 2) How does avatar creation influence the avatar creator's psychological and behavioral consequences? To answer these questions, the current study leveraged a Korean social networking site, which currently provides avatars called “Minimis,” in a randomized experimental setting. This study found that the more the participants perceived their avatars to look like their desired selves, the more likely they evaluated their avatars as being attractive, credible, confident, cool, capable, and persuasive, but failed to find a significant relationship between avatar users' perceptions toward self-created avatars and their attitudes toward the social network site or ads.. The limitations and implications will be discussed.


Oncology ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 676-688
Author(s):  
Youjeong Kim

In computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments, users utilize their avatars as a communication channel to interact and connect with others, and they choose and create them accordingly to represent their self. As such, several major question areas arise: 1) As an extension of identity, how does a user customize his/her avatar? How is the avatar's appearance related to the avatar creator's self-concept? 2) How does avatar creation influence the avatar creator's psychological and behavioral consequences? To answer these questions, the current study leveraged a Korean social networking site, which currently provides avatars called “Minimis,” in a randomized experimental setting. This study found that the more the participants perceived their avatars to look like their desired selves, the more likely they evaluated their avatars as being attractive, credible, confident, cool, capable, and persuasive, but failed to find a significant relationship between avatar users' perceptions toward self-created avatars and their attitudes toward the social network site or ads.. The limitations and implications will be discussed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chantal Fuhrer ◽  
Alain Cucchi

This article explores the relationship between social capital in a professional network and ICT use. It examines the context in which the main ICT networks are used and shows how they are conditioned by the social capital of an individual within their professional network. To do so, different measures from Social Network Analysis are used. An exploratory study on a group of 199 students is presented. The studied Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) media are electronic mail, telephone, Skype, and Facebook. The results show the important position of an actor in the networks of exchanges. The results also show that ICT uses have different contexts involving different degrees of confidence in the network. Email is shown to be influenced by trust centrality and centrality at work while telephone is more influenced by influence centrality. The authors conclude on the prospects for future research.


Author(s):  
Adrian Meier ◽  
Emese Domahidi ◽  
Elisabeth Günther

The relationship between computer-mediated communication (e.g., Internet or social media use) and mental health has been a long-standing issue of debate. Various disciplines (e.g., communication, psychology, sociology, medicine) investigate computer-mediated communication in relation to a great variety of negative (i.e., psychopathology) and positive (i.e., well-being) markers of mental health. We aim at charting this vast, highly fragmented, and fast growing literature by means of a scoping review. Using methods of computational content analysis in conjunction with qualitative analyses, we map 20 years of research based on 1,780 study abstracts retrieved through a systematic database search. Results reveal the most common topics investigated in the field, as well as its disciplinary boundaries. Our review further highlights emerging trends in the literature and points to unique implications for how future research should address the various relationships between computer-mediated communication and mental health.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Stevenson Won ◽  
Ketaki Shriram ◽  
Diana I. Tamir

Proximity, or spatial closeness, can generate social closeness—the closer people are together, the more they interact, affiliate, and befriend one another. Mediated communication allows people to bridge spatial distance and can increase social closeness between conversational partners, even when they are separated by distance. However, mediated communication may not always make people feel closer together. Here, we test a hypothesis derived from construal theory, about one way in which mediated communication might increase spatial distance, by imposing social distance between two texting partners. In three studies, the social distance generated by a text conversation correlated with estimates of spatial distance. Conversations designed to generate social distance increased estimates of spatial distance. We discuss this relationship in light of the rise in computer-mediated communication.


Author(s):  
Samantha Stinson ◽  
Debora Jeske

Computer-mediated communication offers a range of potentially appealing features, including selective self-presentation, social presence control, and simultaneous as well as asynchronous interaction tools. The study examines the influence of personality (introversion and extraversion) and personal variables (social anxiety and public self-consciousness) on online dating preferences from two competing perspectives: the “social compensation” (SC) hypothesis and the “rich-get-richer” (RGR) hypothesis. Survey results (N = 162) revealed that the SC and RGR hypotheses do not hold true within the context of online dating. The findings suggest a stronger role of social influence (e.g., peers) in the decision to online date. The SC and RGR hypotheses may be limited in terms of the extent to which these frameworks adequately explain this online behavior. This may also be due to the increasing popularity of online dating sites, which may make personality and personal traits less informative of whether individuals will opt to use such services.


Author(s):  
Jung-ran Park

This chapter examines the way online language users enhance social interaction and group collaboration through the computer mediated communication (CMC) channel. For this, discourse analysis based on the linguistic politeness theoretical framework is applied to the transcripts of a real time online chat. Analysis of the data shows that online participants employ a variety of creative devices to signal nonverbal communication cues that serve to build interpersonal solidarity and rapport, as well as by seeking common ground and by expressing agreement online participants increase mutual understanding and harmonious social interaction. This sets the tone of positive interpersonal relationships and decreases the social distance among participants. In turn, this engenders solidarity and proximity, which enhances social interaction through the CMC channel.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-43
Author(s):  
Kun Xu ◽  
Tony Liao

Abstract Cues have long been an important concept in computer-mediated communication (CMC), as several core theories have utilized cues to explain how they get filtered and interpreted through technologies. As computing technologies evolved, other related fields have also adopted cues as a concept for understanding technological interaction. Given the pervasive nature of cues, this article first explicates the concept and creates a typology of cues based on how different fields have studied them. It then examines key differences in how existing theories approach cues and their assumptions behind cues, and further pulls apart the relationship between different cue categories and their potential effects on social presence. Lastly, we explain how researchers could draw on this typology to understand the increasingly multifaceted ways that emerging media technologies present cues and evoke social presence. A clear typology of cues is necessary both to clarify the term and help guide future evolutions of CMC.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veera Ehrlén

This case study examines contemporary recreational sports practitioners’ communication practices and social tie formation from the perspective of two lifestyle sports disciplines: climbing and trail running. Online survey results from 301 climbers and trail runners from Finland indicate that computer-mediated communication (CMC) has established its place in recreational lifestyle sports cultures; however, it has not done it at the expense of face-to-face (FtF) communication. Online interaction produces weak social ties with instrumental and informative value, but physical location is essential in establishing ties with emotional and appraisal value. This paper argues that it is the sports subculture and individual practitioners’ needs that define how interaction is realized, and what importance different online and off-line communication practices have. Besides studying communication practices, this case study explores the social meanings practitioners attribute to their social contacts.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
João Paulo Carneiro ARAMUNI ◽  
Luís Cláudio Gomes MAIA

RESUMO. Este artigo apresenta uma abordagem sobre a influência da engenharia semiótica na experiência do usuário de aplicativos mobile. Uma vez que a semiótica se define como o estudo dos signos, dos processos de significação e como os signos e os significados tomam parte na comunicação, os seus estudos estão atualmente voltados para os processos de comunicação mediada por computador entre designers e usuários de sistema, em seus tempos de interação conjunta. Através dos sistemas de interface, por muitos meios diretos e indiretos, designers dizem aos usuários como eles podem ou devem interagir com o sistema, a fim de adquirir um alcance particular de alvos antecipados pelo momento do designing. A mensagem interativa dos designers para os usuários inclui uma “linguagem de interação” que deverá ser utilizada na comunicação de usuários com o sistema. O objetivo deste estudo é ampliar a visão do leitor sobre esta linguagem de interação e a forma como ela é construída no caso de aplicativos móveis. Este estudo contribui com o preenchimento de uma lacuna teórica na compreensão da relação entre semiose e desenvolvimento mobile. Na perspectiva aplicada, a pesquisa oferece contribuições para à comunidade de desenvolvedores de aplicativos móveis quanto à compressão da influência da semiótica na experiência do usuário com a interface do produto desenvolvido. Palavras-chave: Engenharia Semiótica; Experiência do Usuário; Desenvolvimento Mobile.ABSTRACT. This paper presents an approach on the influence of semiotic engineering on the mobile application user experience. Since semiotics is defined as the study of signs, meaning processes, and how signs and meanings take part in communication, their studies are currently focused on the processes of computer-mediated communication between designers and system users, in their times of joint interaction. Through interface systems, by many direct and indirect means, designers tell users how they can or should interact with the system in order to acquire a particular range of anticipated targets by the time of designing. The designers' interactive message for users includes an "interaction language" that should be used in the communication of system users. The purpose of this study is to broaden the reader's view on this interaction language and how it is built in the case of mobile applications. This study contributes to filling a theoretical gap in understanding the relationship between semiosis and mobile development. In the applied perspective, the research offers contributions to the community of mobile application developers regarding the compression of the influence of semiotics on the user experience with the developed product interface. Keywords: Semiotic Engineering; User Experience; Mobile Development.


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