Summary:
In the article “Social Translucence: An Approach to Designing Systems that Support Social Processes” the author discusses the action of communicating through digital interfaces. The author focuses on the areas of visibility, awareness, and accountability. They argue that the digital age has begun to diminish the effectiveness of the way that we communicate in our modern times because the systems we have set in place do not support social interaction as well as they should. We need to be visible to others and they visible to us, we need to be aware of where we are communicating and we need to be held accountable for what we say/do. Without these aspects of communication then the true meaning and essence of communication begins to break down. The author gives the great example of a door that opens too fast. If we add a sign to the door then people may read it and open it slowly, but they may also ignore it and accidentally hit someone when they open too fast. But if you put a window into the door then people can see if others are on the other side, are aware that they could hurt someone and that other people can see them, as well as knowing they are accountable for their actions in the eyes of the people who can see them.
In the article “The Chat Circles Series:Explorations in designing abstract graphical communication interfaces” the author writes about the new interesting ways that people are creating for people to communicate using new technologies. Some of the examples that the author gives for new ways of abstract communication are chat circles and then a more evolved form of chat circles 2. Both of these abstract communication techniques revolve around the idea that a user holds a circle that represents themselves. They can see what other users are saying if they are close enough to the other users circle but cannot if they are to far away. This allows for the users to remove themselves from seeing what is being said without leaving the conversation fully. Chat circles 2 builds on this idea and allows users to use photographs in the background that can help spark new conversations. This was found to help stimulate conversation even when there were only a few users in the chat space.
Reflection:
We hear often that body language and the perceptions we make from it make up a very large portion of our understanding of a conversation but these articles just reinforce that fact even more. They both show that the interactions we have with other people, aside from the actual words that are being spoken actually speak volumes as to the value, point, intensity, and meaning that we gleam from a conversation. This is not only true for how much we get from watching and interacting with somebody else but also from the way that we naturally act to convert information ourselves. Subconsciously the visibility, awareness, and accountability we feel when interacting with someone through more than just text makes us act and respond so vastly differently that it would truly be a waste to let those aspects slip away. These articles have really driven home the point that for communication to be truly effective we must have more that just words on a screen because the words make up so little of the total information we look for in a conversation.
Questions:
- How much information is lost when we take away the body language and interactions of a conversation?
- How would it be best to create a platform that does not require face too face interaction to convey a point as effectively as true face to face conversation?
- Can that true recreation of direct spoken conversation ever be captured by another median?
- Can a true sense of accountability be created for digital platforms?
