Bonus: The Future of the Psychology of Computing

Despite the Internet’s ongoing renovations due to new technological strides, I think that the majority of the theories discussed in class will last. They may serve as benchmark theories for other future experiments or they may actually be applicable to some Internet situations. However, some key theories that are already being “pushed aside” may be theories relevant to impression formation. For example, Walther’s (1993) Social Information Processing Theory projects that impression formation will develop more slowly in CMC. Contemporary social networks like Facebook ad MySpace have already begun to steer away from this theory because of the ability to upload pictures. However, this theory may stick around because we may see it applied to other mediated media, like text messaging. Walther(1996) later describe the Hyperpersonal Model, which I found to be one of the most applicable theories we discussed. I find that the five points that Walther discusses in this model, the over-attribution process, the developmental aspect, selective self-presentation, re-allocation of cognitive resources, and behavioral confirmation, are pertinent in even the contemporary forms of social interaction. I think ongoing forms of social interaction through the Internet will increasingly grow in synchronicity and richness, which may lead to more application of this model. Also, companies and politicians on the Internet may use this model advantageously as it gains more support in the future. For example, advertisers may use this theoretical approach to manipulate their audience’s impressions of their company.

Other models and theories discussed in class, like SIDE (Spears & Lea 1990), the Feature Based Model of Deception (Hancock et al. 2004) will likely still exist and like the Hyperpersonal Model may even be applicable to future technological advancements on the Internet. For example, the Feature Based Model of Deception discusses multiple forms of media such as e-mail and Instant Messaging that are used for various types of deception. We may see that it can be applied to deception in media like video chatting, or networks like Facebook.



As some of these more rich and synchronous technologies that were previously discussed become more accessible they may give rise to more issues. Already we see people committing suicide over an “online relationship” or we have read stories about “online stalkers” as this media advances. Therefore, we can expect more legal issues and future legal restrictions to form in hopes of mediating the computer-mediated environment. If there were one thing that this class failed to cover that it should have already, it would probably be asynchronous (YouTube) and synchronous video chatting.



I feel like this may be the future of interaction on the net will go in the direction of video chatting and we will most likely see this form taking on new applications and it may be used in new environments (such as the recent Democratic debate where YouTubers we asking questions to the candidates) I feel like this field will grow in terms of respectability and applicability as more of the world moves in the direction of the Internet. Great class and useful info!!!!!!