1. Computer-Mediated Communication
Social Effects of Networked Communication

2. Social effects of networked communication
Is networked communication making us happier and more connected?
Or is it destroying the fabric of society?
9/11/2018
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

3. Networked: The New Social Operating System
Claims there’s been a triple revolution (in the US specifically):
Social networks have evolved (and were evolving before the Internet)
Along came the Internet and allowed people to overcome distance
Mobile access has further amplified these changes
First, the macro view: what’s happening to real world communities?
9/11/2018
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

4. Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication
“A new social order has emerged around social networks that is more diverse and less overlapping than those previous groups.”
9 Key Changes:
Widespread physical connectivity
Affordable telecom
Fewer global conflicts
Weaker group boundaries
More informal networks
Breakdown of common culture transmitted through restricted channels
Greater personal autonomy (and more flexible work, for some)
US society less bounded by race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation
Demise of defined benefit plans (!)
Note that this is US-focused
*shift people’s social lives away from densely knit family, neighborhood, and group relationships toward more far-flung, less tight, more diverse personal networks
*Many meet their social, emotional, and economic needs by tapping into sparsely knit networks of diverse associates rather than relying on tight connections to a relatively small number of core associates
3/1/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

5. Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication
Rainie and Wellman present a very positive view of what these changes have given us. Note the Peter/Trudy example in the beginning. Other examples from class?
As the Medium piece points out – we used to have other means for not interacting with strangers in public places. Not a new problem.
Selective perception of the past
R&W argue :assume people are living virtual lives separate from in-person lives; assume in person encounters are most meaningful; CMC is less signal rich and that may cause relationships to atrophy; confusing the medium with the message – do we understand that FB is not actually us?
3/1/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

6. Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication
Who are the losers?
Those who lack useful networks or access to higher status networks
Those who lack connectivity
Those who don’t understand the rules of how to present one’s self online (depending on their personal goals)
Who else?
“The basic argument is that community is falling apart because internet use has led people to lose contact with authentic in-person relationships as they become ensnared online in weak simulacra of reality”
R & W note that the Internet has affected the nature of communities, it has transformed but not destroyed them for networked individuals in the networked operating system.
3/1/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

7. Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication
Transition to Turkle – Turkle is really concerned we are moving away from core human interaction – that the mediation is making us unable to communicate w/o the technology
R&W argue that people’s online and offline interactions are almost always integrated: a networked self that gets reconfigured for different situations.
Very concerned that young people won’t understand that things were ever different. “As digital connection becomes an ever larger part of their day, they risk ending up with lives of less.”
Make the point that much of her concern is with child development.
3/1/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

8. Turkle: Reclaiming Conversation
”[H]uman relationships are rich, messy, and demanding. When we clean them up with technology, we move from conversation to the efficiencies of mere connection.” (p.21)
Are we victims of the technology? It is the cause of Turkle’s concern, or a symptom?
Is this a case of technological determinism?
Are we just finding new ways and means to converse? Or is the affordance of the mediation coming with the cost of a lack of empathy?
Tech determinism: ignoring that use of tech is socially embedded and socially determined.
Focusing on being present, interacting: what are we getting in this room now that we wouldn’t have in an online classroom?
Are our values in fact actually changing? As Murphy points out in his reading comments, none of these readings offers us proof of happiness by rejecting what they are arguing against.
3/1/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

9. Continuous Partial Attention
“In the new communications culture, interruption is not experienced as interruption but as another connection.”
Do we need boredom?
How much of this conflict is the pull of social connection vs. the pull of the device?
A number of you might be in this state right now . . .
Some of the reading comments raised questions about this:
Jon – digital detox camps
Murphy: value of attention
9/11/2018
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

10. Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication
I would argue that the technology is often being designed without our best interests at heart. Natasha Dow Schull, Addiction by Design
3/1/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

11. Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication
How do we change design?
Address the issue of incentives – in most cases, public and private incentives don’t align.
Foster the growth of professional ethics in both HCI and computer science
Rethinking attention: put a critical eye to how we are designing interfaces to maximize engagement over enrichment
3/1/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

12. Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication
Timewellspent.io – Tristian Harris
2/18/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

13. Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication
Joe Edelman, nxhx.org
Framing Distortions from Software. Source: Joe Edelman, nxhx.org
2/18/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication

14. Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication
Are these types of design changes sufficient? Will they solve the problems laid out by the authors?
2/18/16
Cheshire & King— Computer-Mediated Communication