Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Comm 101- CMC

In chapter 11 it talks about the movie You've got Mail.  It goes into the theory that these two people, like other people communicating this way, express information about them and their feelings to eachother.  As a result they develop a relationship through their e-mails.  Funny enough, they do not and choose not to know eachothers names, instead, they go by pseudonames which clue 0ne another about where they live or where they work.

In the move Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan's characteres know eachother outside of the chat room but do not know that they are online couple they seem to be developing into.  In the real world, they kind of don't get along.  It all has to do with the fact that her bookstore may undoubtedly loose business because of the super bookstore that is being opened across the street from her  by Joe.  She views him a certain way and he views her a certain way.  As a result they cannot wait to get home and get online to talk to the one person that makes them feel loved, which happens to be the same exact person they don't like.  

Its funny how these two people grow to loving eachother and haven't even seen what they look like.  It just goes to show that a picture may not say a thousand words.  Its obvious that they felt comfortable with one another on the level of communication they were working with but at what point and what cost would one of them be eager to meet or be hesitant to meet.  What if one person starts to doubt themselves or doubting the other party?  Will it end the online relationship and or ruin any chance of a physical relationship?

1 comment:

Maly from Cali said...

I especially enjoyed reading this part of chapter eleven because I am a big fan of the movie “You've Got Mail.” I did not even think about computer mediated communication when watching the movie, because at that time I little deep understanding about nonverbal language. Now being in the communication studies field, I am seeing more and more how it ties into everything I encounter and have encountered in the past. It would be interesting to watch this movie again; now that my perception has evolved and changed in regards to virtual communication. I see how both Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks character's put up a sort of mental block with each other because of outside extenuating circumstances. Without ever really getting to know the other person, they make assumptions and pass judgment. There is a lack of face-to-face communication but a large amount of virtual communication going on. They were better at achieving relational growth through CMC than in person. The alias names they use remind me of how we use alias names. One of the good things about CMC is it can support anonymity in a communication forum, making people feel safer and more open. I think it leaves room for really getting to know others without any physical or external factors that might normally turn someone off. Maybe virtual communication is a new non-discriminatory, open-minded form of communication. It is easy to subconsciously write someone off after a bad first impression, like the characters in this movie. They were able to be much more intimate in their emails than in person.