Posted by medlib on October 11, 2000, at 18:03:02
In reply to Re: Hypotheses » medlib, posted by Dr. Bob on October 11, 2000, at 12:25:27
Dr. Bob--
Re A.1.-- I can't generalize about others--I'm just not enough like them. Without anonymity, online communication would feel *less* safe to me than f2f; I would be unwilling to communicate in writing about personal matters to someone I did not know and trust. Any form of writing can be saved and come back to haunt. F2f communication, whatever its content, is ephemeral.
For me, "safe" is a real-time feeling generated by the experience of acceptance. "Trust" is the expectation of future reliability and consistency. It is generated in part by early experiences of consistent caring and in part by recent repeated experiences of feeling understood and valued. Some people's early experiences innoculate them against having such expectations of others.
D. 2/3.-- People who join either an online or offline group do so because of some need to communicate with others. There *are* communication differences between the two group types. However, they seem to me to be perceived differences in timing rather than in style or content. An online member may seem to reveal more sooner, but that may be because they have been a "virtual" member (lurker--an unfairly derogatory epithet, IMO) long before they became active (visible) by posting. Factoring out timing, I suspect that communication style and content are pretty similar across group types. They are for me, at least.
G.C. 2--To me, "tends to" is a big improvement over "can." It specifies direction and can be operationally defined as "observed at a rate/level >50%." It's measurable.
BTW...etc.-- Hey, it's your thread! Reading, reacting and writing about the hypotheses takes a long time. I, for one, appreciate the feedback. I suspect that your participation has a measurable effect on the quality and quantity of responses you receive.
I'll be interested in what these hypotheses lead to. Please keep us informed.--medlib
poster:medlib
thread:844
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001011/msgs/986.html