· Have you made friendships that exist exclusively in cyberspace? If so, how are they different from f2f relationships? If you have not formed cyber relationships, why not?
I have made many cyber relationships in the last 12 months. Recently I was hired by a company with 14,000 employees. Of the 14,000 employees about half work from a virtual office. So, as I was starting my new job I realized that I was working with people over email exchanges and the phone. I began to build visualizations of the people and what I thought they may look like based on the tone of their voices or the way that they articulated themselves through email. I found myself guessing age, sexual orientation, and geographic location based on how I perceived their writing styles and voices. This is much different than a face to face relationship where we can instantly determine many things about a person based on the way they dress, body type, how in shape (or out of shape), age, etc.. that are visual cues to how we may perceive this person.
2 comments:
I have had the complete opposite experience. I have made friends with people through online chats when I was younger. I found those relationships to be a little more valuable than the f2f relationships I was having at the time, because they appeared to be more open and honest. You can say whatever you wanted, and it's not like the other person really knew you because they never saw you on a day to day basis. But for me, that was what made it even more appealing and open. It also was fun to build my own visuals of the people I talked to. It was almost like a game. I could make them be whomever and however I wanted them to be.
Hi JP! How do you think your f2f relationships differ from the cyber relationships you have? Also, do you think your relationship (or communication patterns) would change depending on whether or not actually meet the person? If so, how?
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