Nonverbal Communication and

1
NVC CMC

• Nonverbal Communication and
• Computer Mediated Communication

2
In person communication differs from online
communication

• Media richness
• Message complexity, bandwidth, rate of exchange
• Degree of formality
• Slang, profanity, misspellings
• Synchronicity
• synchronous vs. asynchronous exchanges
• Response latency

• Context cues
• Situation, setting
• Hierarchy
• vertical vs. flat
• Anonymity
• poseurs, pseudonymity, nonymity or nonymous
• Privacy
• Controllability of information about oneself

3
Face-to-face (FtF) interaction is nonverbally rich

• FtF includes eye contact, facial expression,
  gestures, vocal cues, posture, touch, and smell
• All mediated communication impedes nonverbal cues
  in one way or another.
• Some media are richer than others
• chatrooms
• texting
• Skype
• Mediated communication has fewer affective
  (emotion, feeling) cues

4
Varieties of CMC

• Email
• Texting
• Instant Messaging
• Chat rooms
• Discussion forums
• Fan sites
• Online support groups
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Skype
• LinkedIn
• Message boards
• Second Life and other virtual environments

5
Impersonal nature of CMC

• To what extent does nonverbal communication
  operate online?
• Fewer nonverbal cues
• Fewer context cues
• It is more difficult to develop closeness without
  nonverbal cues
• Some scholars argue that the lack of nonverbal
  cues in mediated channels limits the depths of
  relationships
• Has Facebook diluted the concept of friendship?

6
Social Displacement, Disinhibition, and the
Hyperpersonal model

• Social displacement hypothesis (Kraut, 1998 Nie,
  2001).
• time spent online trades off with FtF interaction
• most studies failed to confirm this CMC does not
  alienate people from real-life relationships.
• Disinhibition effect internet users are more
  likely to disclose personal information than
  those in FtF settings.

• The hyperpersonal model contends that receivers
  stereotype and idealize their partners when they
  receive messages (Walther, 2006, p. 465).
• Internet users project their own anticipated
  nonverbal messages onto a conversational partner
  to compensate for the lack of cues

7
Social Presence Theory

• The degree of salience (importance, awareness) of
  others a sense of being there between two
  communicators
• Online communication reduces social presence.
• Nonverbal cues assist in establishing and
  maintaining social norms.
• Absent social context cues, people act in less
  inhibited, less socially acceptable ways

• YouTube video by a UCLA student complaining about
  Asians in the library.

8
The Dark Side of CMC

• CMC is less rule-governed than FtF.
• Actual and perceived anonymity of online
  environments encourages negative behavior.
• Infidelity cyber-affairs
• Greater jealousy (Muise, et al .2009)
• Flaming
• Cyber-bullying
• Hate speech
• Loss of privacy
• Web tracking
• Cyber-stalking
• Trolling
• Scams, fraud, identity theft
• Cyber-dumping
• Cyber-firing

9
Learning about perceived anonymity the hard way

• Anthony Weiner tweeted pictures of his package
  to everyone.
• Massachusetts high school teacher was fired over
  Facebook comments about students.

10
Cyberbullying

• High profile cases
• 2010 Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University
  freshman, committed suicide after being outed
  as gay via streaming video.
• 2010 Phoebe Prince hanged herself after being
  tormented online by students at South Hadley high
  school.
• 2008 Jessica Logan, 18, hanged herself after an
  ex-boyfriend circulated nude cellphone pictures
  she sexted him.
• 2006 Megan Meier, age 13, killed herself after
  the jealous mother of a created a fictitious
  identity to harass her.

Tyler Clementi
Phoebe Prince
11
Cyberbullying and teen suicide

• Overall, teen suicides have decreased 28 in
  recent years, however
• A survey by Campus Pride of 5,000 college
  students who are GLBT found that nearly one in
  four reported harassment.
• victims of cyberbullying report that threats are
  as realistic and disturbing as face-to-face
  situations (Aricak 2009).

12
Email, Texting

• Forwarding emails
• Response time
• Autocorrect and auto-completion
• Hey boss, Ill be aroused (around) later this
  afternoon
• Text-speak and LOL-speak
• Reply to all
• Receipt requested
• Out of office reply
• High importance
• Signature, sign offs
• Best regards, Cheers, Take care
• quotations
• Legaleeze

• Salutations
• None, personal, impersonal, too personal
• Dr. Gass, Mr. Gass, Hey Doc
• Clarity, writing style
• typoes adn misteaks can ruin youre credability.
• How revealing are grammatical and typographical
  errors?
• What is the floormat (format) for the paper?
• Important messages deserve a spell-check.
• Font choice, ALL CAPS

13
What is wrong with this email?
14
Legaleeze

• I received happy birthday wishes from a friend
  who is a jury consultant with the following fine
  print at the end of the email.
• Such legaleeze makes the message less warm,
  friendly, personable

• PRIVACY RIGHTS OR EXPECTATIONS, THE
  ATTORNEY-CLIENT AND/OR THE ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT
  PRIVILEGES PROTECT THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN
  THIS FACSIMILE MESSAGE.  IT IS INTENDED ONLY FOR
  THE REVIEW AND USE OF THE INDIVIDUAL NAMED ABOVE,
  AND THE PRIVILEGES OR PROTECTIONS ARE NOT WAIVED
  BY VIRTUE OF THIS DOCUMENT HAVING BEEN SENT BY
  FACSIMILE.  IF THE PERSON ACTUALLY RECEIVING THIS
  FACSIMILE OR ANY OTHER READER IS NOT THE NAMED
  RECIPIENT, OR AN EMPLOYEE OR AGENT RESPONSIBLE
  FOR DELIVERING IT TO THE NAME RECIPIENT, ANY USE,
  DISSEMINATION, DISTRIBUTION OR COPYING OF THIS
  COMMUNICATION IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.  IF YOU
  HAVE RECEIVED THIS COMMUNICATION IN ERROR, PLEASE
  IMMEDIATELY NOTIFY US BY TELEPHONE AND RETURN THE
  ORIGINAL FACSIMILE TO US AT THE ABOVE ADDRESS BY
  FIRST CLASS MAIL.  YOU SHOULD DESTROY ANY COPIES
  THAT WERE MADE.  THANK YOU.

15
Compensating

• Internet users compensate for the lack of
  nonverbal cues in other ways
• Emoticons
• Text-speak LOL reports a feeling or emotion
• Humor, irony, sarcasm are easily confused absent
  nonverbal cues
• But does it work?
• Is an e-card as meaningful as a physical card?
• Emoticons
• Limited range of emotions, lacking in nuance
• May be disingenuous
• LOL

• Gender differences
• Women use emoticons far more than men
• Contradictions between words and emoticons
• With the exception of sarcasm, words tend to be
  more believable than emoticons

16
Cyber-dumping

• People use CMC as an easy way out for
  communicating negative information
• Harder to be mean in FtF communication
• Messages can be worded more carefully than in FtF
  contexts
• Emotional reactions, backlash can be avoided

• Asymmetrical nature of negative CMC
• If Tammy dumps Lloyd via a text, it will be
  easier on her, but harder on him.
• Lloyd may be even more humiliated, may perceive
  Tammy is insensitive

17
The self vs. the virtual self

• Employers now access Facebook to screen job
  applicants
• 70 percent of recruiters and hiring managers in
  the United States have rejected an applicant
  based on online information.
• Poorly written posts
• drinking, drug use
• risqué pictures
• discriminatory comments
• Bad-mouthing previous employer or workplace
• Flame wars on discussion boards

• Impression management on the web.
• Email and user names are verbal (text, words) but
  the images they convey are nonverbal as well.
• nightstalker_at_aol.com
• hankypanky38_at_hotmail.com
• Photographs may be carefully selected and
  manipulated

18
Identity management online

• Facebook is a computerized form of identity
  management
• Users attempt to project a favorable self image
• Online personas may differ from real life actors

19
Online deception

• Online stalking, trolling
• Phishing scams
• Identity theft
• Dating websites on which people post old,
  inaccurate pictures of themselves.
• You werent bald on your web picture.
• You werent 30 years old either!