hi!

My name is Hallie and I am a sophomore Comm major from New York City. I love Tate’s chocolate chip cookies, hiking and Italian food. I am also an assistant at Carol Tatkon center and am a part of EARS. When I came to Cornell last year, I was really worried about losing touch with my friends from high school. Fortunately, a couple of us had bought the new Macbook computers for the new school year. With these computers comes a built in “i-sight” camera on top of the screen. This camera allows any two users with the “ichat” program (or any windows user with a webcam) to video-conference with each other over the AIM instant messenger network. Not only can we actually speak to each other through the computer, but we can see each other live with crystal clear quality and up to three different people can join in to a chat. While this technology is relatively new, Wallace predicted videoconferencing would take place in chapter 1 of her book, and she labeled this technology as “interactive video and voice”. It is a type of synchronous chat, as the interaction between the persons involved takes place in real time, as opposed to a message board where conversations evolve over a period of hours, days or even weeks. One reason I prefer this method of keeping in touch, as opposed to just regular instant messages, is because it eliminates the possibility of misinterpretation. When you are instant messaging with somebody you are not able to see their body language or hear their tone of voice, so you might mistake a casual joke for a jab or a genuine comment as something sarcastic. However with video chatting it is almost as if the person is in the same room as you; it is the closest you can get to a real life interpersonal interaction over the computer. While Wallace argued that this technology may “kill the magic that makes the internet liberating”, I disagree. First of all, most people that video chat are probably talking to close friends that they are not able to see on a regular basis due to going to college, moving away etc. Therefore being able to see them in person though the camera actually makes the experience more liberating because one is able to express themselves more effectively. The only way in which video chatting could diminish the freedom of the internet, in my opinion, would be if somebody was video chatting with a person they had just met in a chat room. With the real-time interaction, they would not have the luxury of time to think about how they wish to portray their self to the “new friend”. Video chatting on ichat helps to bridge the geographical divide between close friends and makes times spent apart from loved ones not so difficult - I am really happy to have it!