The Culture of Videoconferencing and Video get togethers: A Virtual Community

 When in 1976 I started reading and thinking about teleconferencing and videoconferencing I had no clue that one day that would become a way of life.  I wrote then a paper called "A Theory of Electronic Propinquity."  In that paper I talked about the conditions under which mediated get togethers would work better or worse.  Click here to read that paper.

Togetherness has changed in meaning as people are afraid of physical contact and travel.  Thus, now electronic propinquity is the way to be close!

Multiple Screens in a Multicultural Society: What the Future Can Bring

David Deutsch in his notable book "The Beginning of Infinity" talks about how science progresses. He argues that scientific progress has been mostly achieved through conjecture and criticism.  These are the two tasks I am engaging in here in talking about the digital future of a multicultural society.

Many organizations have been concerned lately with the implications of the increased and prolonged use of multiple screens by young and also older people.  The Kaiser family foundation, Ipsos, The Pew Research Center, and others have conducted studies in which they have found that the access to smartphones in particular has increased dramatically.  Also, that infants use tablets and smartphones even when watching television.  Many report fatigue and other strain related issues.  And as we know some run into walls and have accidents when driving, biking, etc. while texting or doing some other activity on their mobile devices.  

Many eschew direct social contact to favor technology.  A New Yorker cartoon recently showed two teenage girls talking while looking at their smartphones and one stated that it should be a special boy that is the one that she first looks directly in the eyes.  Families sitting at tables in restaurants are many times found busily looking at their smartphones as opposed to engaging in interpersonal face to face interactions.  Many look at their different social media accounts while watching television or doing almost anything else.

What has the world come to?!

The world has experienced many important revolutions, evolutions, and discontinuities.  The digital era has brought about a challenging environment that in some ways divides old from young, and those technologically connected and those that are not yet.  

Clearly, some of the negative implications, which are more easily drawn, include:

1. Social dysfunction and lack of interpersonal skills
2. Isolation and daunting individualism
3. Obesity and ill health due to lack of physical activity
4. Life span decreasing and quality of life deteriorating
5. Illiteracy because of lack of reading and writing in grammatically accepted ways
6. Increased selective exposure to materials that agree with one’s points of view, thus polarizing society further
7. Formal education becoming less important and attractive to young people

These are just some of the potential ills that our new society may witness evolving over the next years.  But, like most things in life, there may be different effects as well.  As Jon Stewart found when he used to consult with his “senior speculators” many perspectives and alternative futures may materialize.

What if what we are witnessing now in terms of technology impact is just a transitional phase leading us to a more interesting and challenging future?  What if alternative realities materialize?

Think for example, that looking at screens is just a temporary phase in the evolution of technology.  We know that soon there will be technology increasingly present in our eyeglasses, earpieces, clothing, accessories, and perhaps even implanted in our brains.  The emergence of virtual reality and other technological evolutions will change our behavior and probably enhance our skills as well.

Also, who will be best prepared to take on the evolutionary turns that technology will bring? As we have seen in multiple pieces of research including my own, Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians have outpaced non-Hispanic Whites in their use of new technologies.  Does that mean they will be better prepared for the future? Will social classes flip so that the “have-nots” of today become the “haves” of tomorrow. Will the agents of change be the minorities of today?

What consequences may current and future technologies bring?

1. Brain transformations that allow for increased multitasking and multiple brain operations at once thus making us more versatile in our dealings with people and objects
2. Increased and constant social interaction by dramatically increasing and diversifying our social networks to extents never possible before
3. Increased physical activity as technology will allow for exercise while being virtually connected literally “on the run”
4. Integration of virtual and physical networks to extents never imagined so that people with common interests can navigate between virtual and physical worlds fluidly
5. “Electronic propinquity” or virtual personal nearness will allow for intimacy with distant people who are dear to us and allow for relationships that go beyond what we have known as a relationship
6. Education will become more challenging and interesting as lectures and formal settings become a thing of the past and experiential learning becomes more prevalent
7. Images and sounds will become the new literacy as our brains become more capable of comprehending the world in more complicated symbolic forms
8. Linear literacy will be replaced with immersion literacy, in which one experiences symbols
9. By being connected with distant multiple and diverse others our ability to empathize and understand differences will increase
10. Life spans will continue to increase as exercise and healthy habits are reinforced by new technologies

Alternative worlds can be envisioned and contemplated. Multiculturalism may become more of a reality and also a benefit as humans interconnect at more levels. Members of current minorities may have an edge because of their earlier immersion in the “tech” code of doing things.

The moral of the story is:  Alternative futures may surprise you!

Latinos Online And The Theory of Telepresence

As mediated communications increase in their importance, the question of how cultural differences may influence how people relate to each other in mediated situations becomes salient. Some time ago I published "A Theory of Electronic Propinquity" which basically states that the degree to which people are comfortable communicating via phone, teleconference, etc., varies with the degree to which there is a feedback mechanism in the channel, the complexity of the information being communicated, the skills of the communicators, the rules imposed on the communication, and the availability of alternative channels for communication that may be preferred over the current choice. A colleague Joe Walther at Michigan State University has done important research on the theory, but no one has done a cross-cultural comparison.

In particular, now that Hispanics are distinguishing themselves by embracing social media and online communications to a larger extent than other cultural groups in our society, cross-cultural comparisons are relevant. My hypothesis is that one of the reasons why Hispanics are eager to embrace social media, blogs, and other mediated online communications is because many of these media provide the feedback mechanism needed for satisfaction with the medium. This is because Latinos seem to rejoice in obtaining immediate feedback. That is, a fluid and spontaneous interaction. Further. As we have been raised with the expectation that we will be part of a close knit social group, we tend to have more skills to interact, even when the communication is mediated by technology.

Clearly, the complexity of the information is a limitation in that complex interactions are more difficult when mediated. Still, social media allows for broad bandwidth, or ample amount of information. Thus, social media is more acceptable in some situations than even face-to-face communications.  The rules for interacting in social media are flexible and it is precisely the lack of rigid protocol that is likely to entice Latinos to find satisfaction in modern online communications.

In other words, I have reasons to believe that new media allows Hispanics to recreate the village where everyone knows everyone else and where interactions are spontaneous. This cultural tendency towards going back to the village, but now in a global metaphor, liberates Latinos and other cultural groups. These are groups that have thrived in environments where interaction is free and enriching of everyday life. Environments where the satisfaction of life is found in social coexistence. Societal norms have stifled human communication but the emergence of online communications appear to be breaking them. That is why Latinos embrace these technologies, because they are technologies of liberation.

Clearly, we need to study these trends and consumer behaviors in much more detail. Still, the observable evidence is that the small village of our ancestors is now back online.