Has computer mediated communication (CMC) improved communication? Group members include: Michail Georgaras Darren Honour Gergely Sinka Edgars Sult Thoughts to consider? Has it improved communication or worsened it? How has it changed the way we interact with each other? Is it necessarily a good or bad thing? The aim of this presentation is to highlight the main points of this argument, and to analyse the results from the research undertaken by each of the group members.

A brief history of the internet 1957: The USSR launches Sputnik 1966: ARPA frames the ARPANET plan 1969: The first physical network is constructed 1971: Ray Tomlinson at BBN sends the first 1980’s: The ARPA finishes putting together the Internet Protocol (IP) and the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) 1990’s: The online age starts 1998: The size of the web is about 300 million pages Taken from article by: Gergely Sinka, ‘A brief history of the Internet’, November 2005’

Research conclusions For this group project each of the group members were asked to research a certain area of CMC or internet communication and to draw some conclusions from what they had learnt. In these next few slides i will be summarising the main points that each of the group members have concluded from their research

Michail’s research summary Michail was asked to research the internet and how it affects multiculture, here are the main conclusions of the research: The internet has allowed people of all cultures to communicate with one another The global use of the internet has threatened global security, activities such as terrorism have been more wide spread. The internet has unfortunately allowed these activities to be carried out more easily Factors such as race, religion, location have become less important in the internet age The internet has increased knowledge about global problems As technological development increases ever further, the event of a technology gap may appear and begin widening Taken from article by: Michail Georgaras, ‘Internet and multiculture’, November 2005’

Darren’s research summary Darren was asked to research the positive and negative affects of using CMC or online communication, here are the main conclusions of the research: The internet has created a faster, cheaper, more accesible form of communication for everybody Communication networks have become easier to maintain Personal face to face communication has suffered as a result of the advent of the internet The need for security has become more pronounced Factors such as location and time have become less important Taken from article by: Darren Honour, ‘The positive and negative aspects of using online communication’, November 2005’

Gergely’s research summary Gergely was asked to research internet communication and factors such as lonliness, here are the main conclusions of the research: It is not clear whether internet communication causes lonliness with users, or whether lonely people are drawn to using methods of CMC Different researchers have discovered differing results, some conclude that indeed the internet causes lonliness, however others disagree with this statement It is difficult to draw conclusions as to the answer to this question, however it is known that factors such as age, gender and personality type account for lonliness more than anything else Taken from article by: Gergely Sinka, ‘Internet and daily loneliness’, November 2005’

Edgar’s research summary Edgar was asked to research how using online communication affects people’s personalities and how this may affect them, here are the main points concluded from the research: Anonimity has become a large attraction for CMC users People often try experimenting with personalities online As people lose responsibilty for their actions, more adverse types of behaviour occur, negative thoughts such as aggression, hatred and racism are often expressed People often feel safer when communicating online due to being in a similar enviroment, having no physical prescence with others etc. People who are considered to be extroverts may find CMC inhibiting or restrictive as they find expressing themselves difficult and frustrating Taken from article by: Edgar Sults, ‘The impact of computer mediated communication (CMC) on a person’s behaviour’, November 2005’

Survey results In the next few slides I will be showing some of our survey results in a graphical format, as well as providing a brief statement telling us what each of the results tell us. Also notes the following points: A total of 27 participants answered our qustionairre 17 of them were male, 10 female The average age of the participants was 23 years old A majority of them were computing students

Question one results How often do you use the internet to communicate with other people? (choose one) Every dayEvery weekSeveral times a month Very rarelyNever Response category No of responses

Question one analysis The results of question one show that a large majority of internet users use CMC services everyday, this show that CMC services are heavily integrated into people’s lives

Question two results

Question two analysis The results from question two show that a majority of internet users use CMC services to contact friends and family, with a smaller percentage contacting other people. This tells us that all types of people use CMC services and that that CMC is used in both formal and informal situations

Question three results

Question three analysis The results from question three tell us that instant messaging and are the most popular methods of CMC, with all of the other services being used by a smaller percentage of users

Question four results For what period of time do you use internet communication based services? (hours) The results obtained told us that the average amount of internet communication usage was approximately 4.47 hrs The lowest amount of use was 1hrs, the highest was 15hrs

Question five results

Question five analysis The results from question five tell us that a majority of internet users have an address book that holds 50 contacts or more, this shows us the extent to which CMC services are being used in our personal lives. Some users even had 150 or more contacts.

Question six results

Question six analysis The results from question six shows us how often the people surveyed socialise normally, it provided good comparison statistics to question one, it highlighted the fact that CMC services are more commonly used on a day to day basis to communicate with others, where as socialising takes place on a more occasional basis. It shows how the internet has met our needs for day to day communication rather than long term.

Question seven results How much time do you normally spend when going out? (hours) The results obtained told us that the average amount of time people spend when socialising normally was 5.8 hrs per week The lowest result was 2hrs, the highest being 15hrs

Survey notes The folowing should be noted when reviewing the survey results: Only 27 people were surveyed, thus not providing a large number of results A majority of those questioned were fellow computing students, meaning there would be a trend for higher levels of CMC usage All of those surveyed were in the years old age bracket, thus not providing a wide range sample 17 males were questioned, where as only 10 females were