Communication in digital spaces
Communication is one of the most important things in our life, without it we wouldn't know what others are thinking or trying to say. The communication through facial expression, hand gestures and body language, also known as cues is what we use to communicate with each other. Well that was the more traditional way and hand writing onto paper before technology was introduced but now with technology people have turned into communicating over typed messages. No face to face interactions which means that people can’t fully judge the other person and what their personality is really like. Computer interactions will never be the same as face to face interactions because you don’t get to see reactions of others if chatting online or texting and the comfort of another person. Most people would agree that having face to face conversations are much better than texting socially because having face to face communication you can show emotion, express closeness and availability, having fun, and building new social structures. “Media with fewer social cues often trigger hopes that people will become more equal and more valued for their minds than their social identities, but also raise fears that interactions, identities, and relationships will become increasingly shallow, untrustworthy, and inadequate.” You can’t always trust what you see using media at a form of communication because what the other person writes or says won’t match up to who they really are creating this shallow kind of communicating to others by lying. While if you had met them face to face, immediately you can pick up a few things such as their body language, physical appearance, dress, facial expression, direction of gaze and proximity are all used to determine that person in a social manner. What needs to be determined is the right time to use either face to face or media to communicate to each other such business. Sometimes it is better to have the face to face talk to employees or business meetings rather than sending a text document and discussing it using digital technology chatting online. Reference Baym, Nancy. 2010. “Ch 3: Communication in Digital Spaces.” In Personal Connections in the Digital Age, 50-70. Cambridge MA: Polity Press. Accessed April 7, 2014. https://qutvirtual3.qut.edu.au/qv/olt_material_search_p?p_unit_code=KCB206