SMTP, IRC, and ICQ?
Nearly everyone these days has email. Whether it be through a local ISP, provided as a job-related necessity, or as a part of a student's academic resource, email is a powerful and amazingly accessible tool that can be used to foster communication between two individuals located halfway around the world, or even two people sitting next to each other. Email is the modern equivalent of the traditional letter (known as snail-mail, in modern online slang), both are non-verbal forms of messaging that consist of edited text, sent from one individual to another. On the surface, it seems that email is by far superior. Delivery is instantaneous (or near instantaneousÉ faster than regular mail, at any rate), the quality is always preserved, there is no "postage" to pay, and spell-checking provides for a quick and easy solution to forgotten words and thick dictionaries. However, traditional mail retains a personal touch, something not replicable by computer. Sure, it's possible to send digitally formed signatures (ASCII roses, funny faces, etc.), but it is not quite the same. Somehow, the translation from paper to binary code removes the inherent uniqueness of each message.
Other technologies, such as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and the ICQ system allow individuals to communicate with each other using a text-based chat system. Using these systems, it is possible to mask one's identity because neither identification information nor voice recognition of an individual is possible.
While technologies such as email and chat programs allow the individual to present well-thought out arguments, carefully crafting each sentence and delivering the text with an impartial perfection, this advantage is deceptive. As Meng Weng Wong writes:
"Interaction is reduced to lines of text, enlivened by the occasional smiley. Intonative information is lost, not to mention the enormous body of nonverbal communication, our vocabulary of gestures and idiosyncratic symbols. Two effects follow from this: cognizant of the reduced scope of our presentation, bereft of props, we are forced to focus on what we say, and how we say it. Our private self-consciousness is increased.While online communications methods may allow the timid user to express his or her opinions with clarity and confidence, Mr.Wong points out that the online user loses the ability to use the abilities of nonverbal communication, including body language, in conveying a thought or idea. Furthermore, this results in an increase in private self-consciousness. As the individual must more and more rely on online methods of communication, they lose the ability to utilize subtleties in voice, body, and idiosyncratic movement in conveying an idea. Thus, when the individual is faced with a situation in which he or she must communicate physically, the individual will inevitably perform poorly, becoming unable to express him or herself clearly and creating a bad impression. This, in turn, results in a negative experience and reinforces the individual's need for technology mediated communication.
Meng-Weng points out, additionally that "real-life conversation is a dynamic process of action/reaction, where participants consider the other's perspective and reaction to what one is saying. On the net, though, such cues are effectively suppressed, due either to the paucity of the medium (in realtime chats) or to the asynchrony inherent in any system where messages are long and take time to compose. The delayed medium and unemotional nature of text (as opposed to real physical intimacy) results in a reduction of public self-awareness: it is simply impossible to gauge the response of the audience, and thus one is forced from a posture of rhetorical persuasiveness to an earnest desire to communicate meaningfully." In a physical communications situation, the speaker is always to some extent aware of his or her audience. Based on the audience reaction, the speaker is conscious that an impression is forming of him or her. This results in the necessity for the speaker to both adapt and respond to the audience. In an online setting, this is not the case. The online user is less aware of the consequences of his communication. This means that the user will receive less information from his audience, and feel less responsible for comments or suggestions made. Overall, this results in a lessening of the feeling of social propriety. Again, the consequences of this can be disastrous over time.
A proponent of online communication writes, "For many years I've pursued the traditional method for beginning a relationship: face-to-face contact, typically over several dinners. The primary goals over dinner usually concern appearance rather than substance, such as maintaining a casual yet respectful demeanor, trying not to spill your wine, eating with chopsticks without dropping a shrimp in your lap, and the like. In contrast, the primary goal of a new Internet-based relationship is to learn about another's thoughts. Because the Internet is a far less formal medium than snail mail, Internet-based relationships start as friendships, which tends to set your priorities straight from the beginning."
While it is true that physical encounters generate a higher degree of importance towards appearance, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Appearance is important both in the fact that it allows an individual to gauge qualities that are not apparent simply by verbal communication. Is this person a practitioner of good hygiene? Do I like the way this person dresses? Questions such as these are important considerations when developing any relationship with another individual. And unless the relationship pursued online stay online forever, the questions raised by physical interaction and appearance must inevitably come up. It is also a poor assumption that individuals using the Internet have the same expectations and demeanor when going online. Many users of the Internet are recreationally or maliciously motivated, and because of the impersonality of online communication, these attitudes are difficult to detect.
As individuals move their interactions from the physical realm to the virtual realm, it is important to realize that online communication removes a certain amount of information about the person with whom an individual is communicating. Although this can result in a purer and cleaner form of communication, it in most cases results in misinformation and badly developed assumptions.