Let's Pour Out Some Different Experience on CMC by Wai Ling

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       Nowadays, computer mediated communication (CMC) has been long established and integrated into every single part of human social life. Within the presence of its technological advancement, CMC is extensively appealed as part and parcel of human living manner and behaviour that could fully accommodate to CMC’s functional accessibility and availability. In other words, people nowadays cannot live without indulging in the world of CMC, even for only one second. 

       One of my experiences was when I was inviting my friends to have a simple and casual gathering during my last semester break. Back then, I badly missed my secondary school friends and all of sudden, I asked them via WhatsApp as if they would be free to meet up. However, most of them replied vaguely after they had read through on it. At that moment, I felt a strong sense of awkward and ambiguity that slowly made me frustrated along the conversation. 

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       According to how lack social context cues theory is discussed by Siegel, Dubrovsky, Kiesler and Mcguire (1986) as well as Sproull and Kiesler (1986), Walther (2011) notes that the existence of CMC is inherently regarded as generator to resist an individual’s temperament and their normative conduct which possibly managed to regulate in the condition of face-to-face communication system (Walther, 2011). As such, I might not get what they actually wanted to tell me and this eventually led to misunderstanding. 

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       Engaging in such paradigm, it is perceived that social clues reduction came to elicit the effect of emotional disorientation, behaviour estrangement and cognitive bewilderment as the CMC users would more likely to develop characteristics and personality of anomaly, egocentricity and impulsiveness over their mode of visual interaction (Diener, Fraser, Beaman, & Kelem, 1976; Singer, Brush, & Lublin, 1965; Sproull & Kiesler, 1986). As I could not stand it anymore, I started pushing them to give me an answer by texting them again with capitalized words to show my anger and irritation.

References 

Diener, E. D., Fraser, S., Beaman, A. L., & Kelem, R. T. (1976). Effects of deindividuating

variables on stealing by Halloween Tricks-or-Treaters. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 33(2), 178-183.

Siegel, J., Dubrovsky, V., Kiesler, S., & Mcguire, T. W. (1986). Group processes in computer-

            mediated communication. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,

            37(2), 157–187.

Singer, J., Brush, C., & Lublin, S. (1965). Some aspects of deindividuation: Identification and

            conformity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1(4), 365-568.

Sproull, L., & Kiesler, S. (1986). Reducing social context cues: Electronic mail in organizational

            communication. Management Science, 32(11), 1492–1512.

Walther, J. B. (2011). Theories of computer-mediated communication and interpersonal

            relations. In M. L. Knapp, & J. A. Daly (Eds.), The handbook of interpersonal

            communication (4th ed) (pp. 443-479). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.