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unit reflection #4
Geschrieben von
thomas t
,
13 Mai 2009
·
462 Aufrufe
Computer-Mediated Communication
On the last course we separated in two groups. One talking about about group communication in chats, the other about group communication in discussion boards. I was in the discussion board group. We were supposed to talk about our experiences and collect examples that explain disinhibition, deindividuation, polarisation, cohesion, interactivity and identity, which are the downsides and upsides of group dynamics. And lurking.
First I want you to give a short explanation of what this terms mean.
Downsides:
After the group session we came up with our examples for the plenum. The chat group had focused on ICQ. They explained how it worked, how communities formed there and the use of emoticons.
The forum group first talked about facebook as an example for cohesion and identity. How it is important, especially for the foreign students of my university, to form a community so they can help each other (on the search for the next good party
). For polarisation we took a forum where a group constantly mob an other user. Naturally it is hard to find a example for lurkers, because they usually don't left a sign. But one of us knows this Swedish board, which is about everything. It's so big, that it's obvious there are many lurkers. After that I talked about the death of a forum as an example for disinhibition, deindividuation and cohesion.
It's one or two month ago as I was able to watch it. The moderators there were very strict with spam (no one-liners) and flame. Non the less it was very relaxed and I liked it. Now and then there were rumors that the mods play unfair to some users. “Just rumors, nevermind†, I thought. But it was obvious that the go quiet. On the other hand, the numbers of posts each day stay constant. In the end it was just one mod, who has the guts to wrote controversy posts.
And some day her account was deleted. With it all of her posts - over 2500. There were no cues left that they had ever exist. Some of them were important to understand a number of threads.
A friend of her couldn't stand this, so she started a thread to say that she thread to say that she doesn't like this style. Other users, like myself, took the opportunity to wrote what we think was a problem on this forum. In no time this thread was over 3 pages long. (That's funny because the administrator regularly started feedback-thread, but no one responses.) After on day the thread was deleted without any cue of it's existence.
That was the turning point. Most of the mayor users (all of them with 3000+ posts of no spam) and lots of the normal ones choose to leave the forum. I didn't leave, but I also stopped posted and became a lurker.
It looked like it was able to survive. But it was also obvious that the administrator lost his will and two weeks later he closed the forum and deleted everything.
Thomas Templ 0002079
First I want you to give a short explanation of what this terms mean.
Downsides:
- Disinhibition: Means that the concern for self-presentation and judgment of others reduces. It's the stop of worrying what others think about one.
- Deindividuation: When disinhibition is about group than deindividuation is the reduction in self-focus.
- Polarisation: When the behavior and opinion of members of one group are focused on one end of a bipolar continuum. It's no phenomenon of CMC, it's also common in offline-groups.
- Cohesion: It's just the tendency to stick together. It doesn't matter if it's physically or logically.
- Interactivity: It's how the messages relate to each other and how details of earlier messages are recount.
- Identity: In this case group identity. It doesn't have to be related on similarities or shared interests. It's just the feeling that one is connected with another. In CMC it can be stronger than in RL
After the group session we came up with our examples for the plenum. The chat group had focused on ICQ. They explained how it worked, how communities formed there and the use of emoticons.
The forum group first talked about facebook as an example for cohesion and identity. How it is important, especially for the foreign students of my university, to form a community so they can help each other (on the search for the next good party
). For polarisation we took a forum where a group constantly mob an other user. Naturally it is hard to find a example for lurkers, because they usually don't left a sign. But one of us knows this Swedish board, which is about everything. It's so big, that it's obvious there are many lurkers. After that I talked about the death of a forum as an example for disinhibition, deindividuation and cohesion.It's one or two month ago as I was able to watch it. The moderators there were very strict with spam (no one-liners) and flame. Non the less it was very relaxed and I liked it. Now and then there were rumors that the mods play unfair to some users. “Just rumors, nevermind†, I thought. But it was obvious that the go quiet. On the other hand, the numbers of posts each day stay constant. In the end it was just one mod, who has the guts to wrote controversy posts.
And some day her account was deleted. With it all of her posts - over 2500. There were no cues left that they had ever exist. Some of them were important to understand a number of threads.
A friend of her couldn't stand this, so she started a thread to say that she thread to say that she doesn't like this style. Other users, like myself, took the opportunity to wrote what we think was a problem on this forum. In no time this thread was over 3 pages long. (That's funny because the administrator regularly started feedback-thread, but no one responses.) After on day the thread was deleted without any cue of it's existence.
That was the turning point. Most of the mayor users (all of them with 3000+ posts of no spam) and lots of the normal ones choose to leave the forum. I didn't leave, but I also stopped posted and became a lurker.
It looked like it was able to survive. But it was also obvious that the administrator lost his will and two weeks later he closed the forum and deleted everything.
Thomas Templ 0002079
