Assignment 6, Option 1: Away Messages

The away message is a simple example of a standard online. When one chooses to remain logged into AIM, but leaves his/her computer, he/she has the option to put up an away message. Sometimes it is considered a form of netiquette, so friends aren’t waiting for a response when you’re not at the computer, sometimes it is considered a form of expression, depending on what one writes on his/her away message.

I can recall the first time I saw an away message. I IMed a friend and, immediately, a response popped up saying that my friend was away from her computer. At first I was confused. How did my friend hack into AIM and create this message?! How did it get sent so fast!? I wasn’t quite sure. This was before there were icons next to screen names on buddy lists. There was no picture of a message, or a red, yellow, or green dot signifying my friend’s online status. But, as more of my friends put up messages saying they were away, I caught on to what an away message was; it was a simple online note saying that my friend had left his/her computer, but chosen to remain online. Through use and common sense people were able to figure out what away messages were. As away messages advanced and people were able to choose what it said, use and common sense, again, taught us that away messages were fluid and we could choose what was written in them.

Away messages are part of an unmoderated setting, and Wallace discusses how the Leviathan has a bit more difficulty developing in unmoderated settings. That is, unless humans choose to willfully conform to a certain standard in order “to preserve a productive online group environment” (p 70). Today, people have the choice to say whatever they would like to in their away messages. They can be kind and use netiquette as to not offend anyone or they can be harsh and rude to those on their buddy lists intentionally. But, when people choose the latter, a backlash is possible. If you say you hate your friends on your away message (maybe because you had a fight with one), all of the others will see that and may react negatively and get offended. So most likely, people choose to follow netiquette and keep their away messages polite, or use song lyrics to disguise their true feelings, in order to conform to the polite, online norms. The Leviathan is able to enforce this norm because of the fear of a reproach occurring.

Wallace discusses a CMC experiment to observe group polarization, in which group members are given hats to wear to create a sense of team unity and team members either sat at their computers in the same room together or in separate rooms. One of the findings was that participants to who team unity were emphasized; who sat in different rooms had a sharp increase in group polarization. More so than those who sat in the same room and could see one another. This finding applies to away messages in that, we use our computers and write our away messages in separate places, and we know all of the people we are friends with on our buddy lists (this can be considered our group) will see our messages. Because of this, we tend to stick to the norm. The sense of groupness, but working in separate places encourages normative behavior. Overall, away messages are a way we can individually write whatever we want, but in which we generally choose to stick to the norm and be polite or disguise any malevolence.