Online Communication

Our readings for this week were concerned with the ways in which human interaction and communication take a different shape online, due to the fact that this kind of technology enables and perhaps encourages different values and communication patterns.

Ilana Gershon's chapter, "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover," was interested in media ideologies, the expectations of certain kinds of communication through particular platforms, and second order communication, meaning the the mode of communication.Varied forms of communication shapes not only our conversations, but also our perception of our interpersonal relationships, namely, the way we form and break connections with each other.

Olivia Banner was similarly concerned with online communication and connections made in online spaces. In "Treat Us Right!" Banner analyzes two groups on PatientsLikeMe.com - those diagnosed with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome (or identify with these illnesses). Banner argues that PLM facilitates the creation of biosocial communities, in which individual biology regulates identity and behavior. She says that the self is turned into data, which is taken on by the body. PLM encourages shared community experiences that puts biology at the fore, in line with the fetishization of data and information.

Tom Boellstorff, in his chapter on Intimacy, is interested in the way romantic relationships take shape in Second Life. Residents of Second Life believe that relationships forged in SL are more real or genuine because you get to know the other person to a deeper degree, past physical appearances. He was also concerned with sexual intimacy and kinship relations that were fostered in SL.

Professor Song's excerpt from "On the Cutting Edge" is concerned with interactions on a CareCure forum, specifically for those individuals and families who are affected by physical paralysis. These forums are a space in which people share information and experiences about living with paralysis and new treatments. The forums and threads are not deleted and conversations can take place across space and time, creating an online shared community. Additionally, this online community has facilitated a process of global medical migration - or pilgrimages, as defined in Professor Song's article we read earlier this semester. Thus, this virtual space has created a new form of mobility for these people.

These authors argue that online communication defines social relationships both online and offline, expanding the boundaries of community, while also narrowing the focus or common identity of that community. These readings focused specifically on romantic relationships and communities with a shared medical-related experiences. Is it common for these online communications, relationships, and communities to manifest in physical spaces? What are the benefits of having spaces that have a particular media ideology and expectation of content? Is pigeonholing a drawback? Do online communities, with very specific foci, put identities into a box online/offline? What happens when, as we have discussed before, people move fluidly among numerous communities - do we have experiences of this type of code-switching? How do we conceptualize the self in regards to these online communities?