12: Predicting the Future

The theories we studied will always be evolving and new theories will be developed as technology affects our interactions. However, impression formation and impression management are a phenomena that will always be studied because it is how we first act when we put ourselves online and how we react to others online. In particular, the Hyperpersonal Model has been applied in the beginning when people were simply chatting online through text to now, as people, along with online chatting, use profiles to interact through social network sites. Although we do not hear much about online social support in the news, its success in helping others has proven that it will probably be around for awhile. The internet’s characteristics, including 24/7 access, anonymity, social distance, and interaction management, allow people to self-disclose more and truly receive the help they cannot get in an FtF environment. Digital deception has been a particularly interesting topic that will also always hold because it deals with human behavior when presented with various media to lie in. Since lying is something we do on a daily bases, the Social Distance Theory and Media Richness Theory will always be applied to these situations.

I think the theories relating to leaving virtuality will change as more relationships incorporate mixed modality in their interaction. Some of the theories do not entirely relate for relationships that went from talking online, to talking on the phone, to talking in person. Predictions were mostly negative for relationships that went strictly from CMC to FtF, but when other media are involved, it helps each party to validate and redistribute their impressions so that the FtF meeting is more “natural”.

New issues regarding privacy and rights will need to be addressed as internet offenses increase. Many of the news articles we heard about in lecture were dealing with whether people should be accounted for the wrongs they perform online and how they should be punished. However, there is also the issue of whether it would be considered as invading privacy because what they do in CMC is their business. Will it be necessary to have some for of online law enforcement to monitor virtuality? I noticed from our blogs about the virtual self that most people were not impressed with Second Life. It would be interesting to study why our generation was indifferent to Second Life; yet, large companies are investing so much in it and its popularity is growing worldwide.