Bonus: Change by New Technology

One of the theories that we learned in class that will always hold is the Media Richness Theory. Daft and Lengel (‘84) state that efficiency of communication will dictate which media people will use. With this fast pace society where productivity and work load have been increasing, efficiency is a huge part of life. Therefore, people will want to get that optimal match between equivocality and communication and will want to be efficient with their time. Furthermore, with new media of communications increasing to pop up in our society, such as the Blackberry and the iPhone, people will be able to even more efficient.

However, with the introduction of new software and technology, we will have to alter some theories as well. Some of these theories that will need to be changed are the CFO perspective, the Hyperpersonal model and the SIP theory. All these theories deal with impression management over CMC and the ambiguousness of the internet. However, with tools such as Facebook, Youtube and video chat/conferencing, where people are able to perceive Ftf cues, many of these theories will need to be changed. The CFO theory which predicts that communication over CMC will lead to poor and negative impressions will be negated with the introduction of new cues into the internet. Furthermore, the slow impression formation over the CMC that the SIP theory states, will also have to changed since all the impressions will form faster due to more cues. Finally, regarding the Hyperpersonal model, the breath of impression formation will increase due to more cues and, therefore, the intensity of the impressions will decrease over CMC.

Technologies that I mentioned above are revolutionizing not only the work place, but also the academic society. Now due to video conferencing, students in Qatar can listen to a Psych 101 lecture held in Bailey Hall. Now due to the blackberries and the iPhones, businessmen can work on deals any time and any where. New graduates just entering the work field are greeted with Blackberries and laptops so that the companies can be more efficient and productive. Issues such as these are very interesting and it would be great to learn how people are dealing with this fast pace environment.

Moreover, with this addition of new technology come issues such as Problematic Internet Use and internet addiction. More and more people are getting addicted to online games and sites such as Second Life. Being a premed major, it would be really interesting to learn new treatments or drugs that are provided for these new types of disabilities.

All in all, this class gave a great insight into the psychology of the internet and how people are getting affected by it. The social theories and guidelines that were taught were fascinating to learn about. It would have been great if we studied more about digital deception and the new threats out there in this field. Furthermore, I would have loved to learn more about how the advancement of new internet technology has affected our behaviors and attitudes online.