THE QUALITY OF Online Social Relationships. .

Abstract: The article focuses on the quality of online social relationships. People use the Internet intensely for interpersonal communication, sending and receiving email, contacting friends and family via instant messaging services, visiting chat rooms, or subscribing to distribution lists, among other activities. The evidence is clear that interpersonal communication is an important use of the Internet, if not its most important use. Claims regarding the Internet's usefulness for developing social relationships, however, remain controversial. Both personal testimonials and systematically collected data document the deep and meaningful social relationships people can cultivate online. This evidence, however, conflicts with data comparing the value that people place on their online relationships with offline relationships and with data comparing social relationships among heavy and light Internet users. First there is a need to know how computer-mediated communication affects the quality of particular social interactions and relationships.

Source:Communications of the ACM. Jul2002, Vol. 45 Issue 7, p103-108. 6p

An abstract found about online communications, its interesting to see all the uses  for the internet highlighted, we probably use the internet on a day to day basis and never really think of how powerful it is, we take it for granted. I'll be looking forward to researching how online relationships form in more detail.





Posted by Christie

Match.Com Advertisement

Match.com advertismenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5rbICqB_1s




Above is a link for a Match.com advertisement. From this you hear from someone who hasn't got much free  time, in this instance between work and rugby so therefore finds it difficult to find and meet new people and start new relationships. With the help of online dating websites It makes it easier to get to know somebody. This shows how the use of new technologies are making their difference in peoples everyday lives.




Posted By Christie

The Discursive Practice of the New

In the book New Media, Fuery references familiar theorists (Faucault and Bartes) and how their thinking can be applied to, and used to help deconstruct, the subject of New Media.

One idea which Fuery discusses is that of discourse. The meaning of discourse can change depending on the context in which it is used. In New Media, the author relates discourse to power and knowledge.

Fuery looks at the meaning of 'new' and what 'new' means relating to media. So what is New? Fuery suggests that the word 'new' is related to status rather than function. How long is new, 'New'?

An interesting exercise that Fuery suggests in this chapter is to encourage the reader to explore different situations where the word new is used as a prefix. Fuery offers five examples to start challenging the term but suggests there are many more variations to analyse. 

The quality of online, offline, and mixed-mode friendships among users of a social networking site.

abstract: The first aim of this study was to compare the quality of online, offline, and mixed-mode friendships (i.e., friendships that originate online and extend to offline settings) among users of a social networking site. The second aim was to investigate the relative contribution of proximity, perceived similarity, and social attraction to the quality of each of the three types of friendships. We surveyed 2,188 members of a Dutch social networking site. Results showed that the quality of all three types of friendships increased over time. The differences in quality between online and offline friendships remained significant over time, but those between mixed-mode and offline friendships disappeared. Proximity did not affect the quality of any of the three types of friendships. Perceived similarity was the most important predictor of online friendships, whereas social attraction was the most important predictor of mixed-mode and offline friendships. Our results are discussed in the light of both interpersonal and computer-mediated communication theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Source:Cyberpsychology. 2012, Vol. 6 Issue 3, p1-11. 11p.

This Abstract was interesting as it looks into the comparison of online and offline relationships and how they develop through time. This abstract states the online relationships were more successful, this may be because the internet and social networking is so readily available to use, anybody can use it, it is easy to communicate with family/ friends who may have moved away, time differences don't cause complications- as they will get the message regardless of time and can reply when they want to.


Posted by Christie

What Cyberculture is to us?

We feel that cyberculture is based on the modern day technologies and the communities that are formed through social networking websites. We feel that Facebook and Twitter gives you a means to communicate, not only with people nearby but people worldwide. This can be a great thing, however we feel it can also be untrue as there’s nothing to say you are talking to who you think you are without the use of video. People can construct a perfect identity for themselves; people only see what they want them to see. There are so many branches of cybercultures but we have discussed which area we would like to specialise in. We want to explore how Relationships are built through online dating websites, social networking websites; how people can fall in love with somebody they have never physically met, sometimes even fake profiles.

New Media (Lucy)

A couple of interesting books focusing on New Media. The Cyber Cultures Reader contains journals on, and around, the subject of new media from over 40 contributing academics. It also includes useful references at the end of each chapter for further reading on that subject, so seems to be a good place to start for an overview of cyber cultures/New Media and it's many forms.

An introduction to new media and cybercultures

I've read the first few pages of  'An introduction to new media and cybercultures by Pramod K. Nayar'
and got to this...

"As the internet, digital media and cyber cultures become 'normalized', domesticated, and integrated into the everyday life of individuals and organizations, we need to understand how they affect that everyday life"

It made me think about memes and their popularity on the internet and I wondered if you all had heard about them before? It also makes me think about textspeak/SMSlanguage and how some people even say LOL or CBA out loud, I guess that would be an ideal example of how digital media has integrated into everyday life.

Lee

Christie's Research

From The Cybercultures reader.

 Edited by David Bell and Barbara M.Kennedy

From The Cybercultures reader. 

Edited by David Bell and Barbara M.Kennedy

From Reload rethinking Women + Cyberculture.

Edited by Mary Flanagan + Austin Booth

Jake and Ford's Research

Hey guys, we looked at 4 different books about cyber cultures and the new media.

Here are some key paragraphs and pages we thought were useful.