#12 Bonus Blog: The Future

Society and the internet are constantly changing. What used to be relevant and important today may not be so tomorrow. With new technologies and new insights on their effects on impression formation older theories of social computing will be replaced with fresher ideas. For example, the Reduced Social Context Cues Theory is dying down in popularity, while the Hyperpersonal Model is soaring. With so much of our time spent online it makes sense that our impression formations will become exaggerated and intense. We end up feeling like we know the person on the other end of the computer with the help of our vivid imaginations. The use of the internet as a social, not just a task oriented device, will lead to the demise of the Reduced Social Context Cues Model. People are now using the internet to make friends and driving the internet away from its cold and unfriendly origin. Further, with the increased use of the internet, there will be no doubt an increase in problematic internet usage (PIU). We, as a society, are becoming more and more dependent on the internet. Some of us will be able to handle this change, and others will not have as much self-control and discipline.

In the future theorist’s will move away from focusing on MUD’s and move towards Facebook and Youtube. Such a change is already in the making. An interesting study would be to see how influential the Youtube video “Obama Girl” was on the political campaign and people’s opinions. Another interesting topic that may be addressed in the future is the quality of online relationships with strangers in online games. Do these online relationships serve the same purpose as real life relationships and are these individuals just as health and happy as the rest of us? Further, will spending an increasing amount of time and reliance on the internet, lead to less socially competent individuals in the real world? How easy is it to go back and forth from online to offline (modality switching)? Is there an adjustment period?

One topic that I wished the class would have covered was pornography. Pornography is a growing business and I’m curious to as to what social computing theorists have to say about it. There must be research related to PIU, gender differences and online pornography. Maybe I’ll read the Wallace chapter on pornography on my own. I think it would be interesting.

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