CMC SUMMARY: mimi

INTRODUCTION

The title for the article is, “Affect in Computer-Mediated Communication: An Experiment in Synchronous Terminal-to-Terminal Discussion. Time and again, computer is believed to be the significant technological development and it seems sensible to study the underlying psychological and social implications of this development. This is because; modern computing technologies do have major effects on patterns of social contact.

Three types of affects can be distinguished in social situations in which people communicate and they are; physiological arousal, subjective emotions or affective feelings and expressive behaviour. This study investigates whether computer-mediated-communication influences one or more of these three forms of affect and the patterns of language used. It is noted that the nature of computer-mediated-communication of synchronous mode is instantaneous and it relies on the text per se, which reduces to a minimum nonverbal feedback and social context information.

METHODOLOGY

This study was designed to address one question that actually raised by the researcher which is, does computer-mediated communication change individuals’ feelings and does this feelings affect the patterns of language used? This study was a qualitative study. The basic design of the research was a comparison physiological arousal, subjective self-reports of feelings, attributions, evaluations and interpersonal behavior in two communication settings, one with two people met and talked with each other for the first time face-to-face and the other in which two people met and talked with each other via on-line computer conversation.

In conducting the research, eighty male and female undergraduate students from Carnegie-Mellon University were paid to participate in a study of communication. Subjects did not know each other before the experiment and they were randomly paired for the experiment. There were 11 female-female pairs, 12 male-male pairs, and 17 mixed-sex pairs, roughly divided among conditions. All the participants already had experience using computers and computer terminals.

Throughout the experiment, students were asked to discuss as many questions as possible with the partner, to follow questions from the guide and to wait until both partners had answered each question before going to the next one. Questions discussed ranging from factual questions about the other person’s background and life to questions about opinions, feelings and evaluations. The examples of the questions are; “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”, “Are you an active member any organization?”, “Name three important aspects of your ideal boyfriend/girlfriend?”, “what do you usually do at a party?” and “Are you often willing to take risks?”

The pair of subjects had been assigned to the low-evaluation anxiety and high-evaluation anxiety. In the low-evaluation anxiety condition, subjects were told to not to be concerned about what was said during the conversation because the researchers are only interested in the patterns of discussion. However, in the high evaluation anxiety, the subjects were told to use their best social skills because each of them is going to meet his or her partner in person (computer mediated communication) and again, in person (face to face communication). They subjects will compete with other pairs of subjects to see which pair is most socially adept in situations which involve interactions between new people.

The subjects were given 20 minutes in the both face to face communication and computer mediated communication to answer and asked question from the discussion guide. In computer mediated communication condition, subjects were using interactive software program for online synchronous communication known as converse.

DATA ANALYSIS

The expressive behaviour and communication processes of the subjects were evaluated using analyses of the content of the discussions between the subjects. The discussions in computer mediated communication between each pairs of subjects were recorded directly in the computer files and the face to face discussions tape recordings were transcribed into computer files. The content of the conversation was not being altered at all. The efficiency and difficulty of the communication is measured by counting the number of the questions guide that the subjects were able to complete.

FINDINGS

All of the subject pairs interacted successfully for twenty minutes. The result has shown that face-to-face pairs said 9 times as many words as did the computer-conversing pairs. They also made 6 times the number of remarks. The interchanges of conversation in both conditions can be regarded as positive. Both conditions of pairs begin their sessions by telling ordinary things about themselves but later disclosed quite a lot about themselves.

Even though face-to-face pairs said many words as compared to computer mediated communication pairs, these CMC pairs were more engaged in a highly personal exchange. On several cases, the pairs seemed to have found reason to interact further.

Other than that, males were more likely to swear in the conversation and mixed-sex pairs like each other more than same sex-pairs. A very high self-disclosure can be seen in the mixed-sex, computer mediated condition relative to the other conditions. This finding has confirmed about the role of computer in reducing initial shyness and promoting romantic attachments.

REACTION TO THE FINDING

This research is unreliable in measuring the conversation patterns between speakers especially in the face to face communication. The time allocated for both conditions was very short. 20 minutes is too short a time to measure the progression of the conversation in face-to-face condition. 20 minutes time will only provide the participants with the opportunity to get to know each others, thus, their interaction will only centre on typical and mundane questions and it is unacceptable if face-to-face pairs are said to have answered and asked many questions compared to another pairs condition. Another reason that makes the research and finding unreliable is all the participants were given the guide questions in advance. These questions will make them less expressive in their communicative behaviour and even more talkative when they are actually not.

Looking at the current situation, students do favour online chat or synchronous mode of computer mediated communication in talking to strangers. This mode of communication can lessen their anxiety and they can freely express their thoughts without worrying about what other people might think of them. On the other hand, interlocutors in the face-to-face communication are somehow concerned about other people’s impression thus; they will be more reserved in initiating talk with strangers.

Since students are very comfortable with online chat, teachers may consider using this method in teaching the second language. Teachers can let the students have a short online chat at the beginning of the class let them apply their knowledge of the second language in real-life situations. This method of teaching has been used in other countries but schools in Malaysia have not emulated this technique yet. Yes, using computers in teaching languages is very costly and time-consuming; however, this technology can build up students’ confidence as they will have the chance to talk with native speakers of the language via online chat.