Bonus Assignment: The Future of Comm 245

The concepts learned in Comm 245: Psychology of Social Computing, were very effective in explaining modern day internet use and its impact on society. The problem, however, is that advances in internet technology are occurring everyday. Perhaps by next year when this course is taught again, the curriculum will have to be updated because of the constant changes in technology. For the future of Psychology of Social Computing, I predict that some theories will hold, however, some will need to be altered, and new theories will be created.

One important aspect of the internet is its dimensions. These dimensions are key tools that help to form and define many theories and will continue to be crucial in the future. Important dimensions of psychological spaces include anonymity, synchronicity, and persistence. Based on how internet use has progressed over time, these dimensions will continue to have an impact but in different ways. For example, as technology works to keep individuals connected, it is now possible to communicate with others through webcam and over time it will probably become even easier. As a result, this type of online psychological space will have a very small degree of anonymity because a person can be seen and heard and has little control over their self expression. Also, technological improvements will be able to minimize the time delay, making this sort of communication very synchronous. In addition to these two factors that seem very similar to communicating face-to face, the dimension of persistence would also be very high because almost everything on the internet today is recordable. This dimension would make communication very different from face-to-face interaction and would probably spark many new ideas and theories about communication.

An important theory that was emphasized throughout this course was the Hyperpersonal Model which has five components. Based on its main points and the current technological advancements, I think that this theory would become obsolete unless it were to be modified. The first component, over-attributional processes, would not be accurate in the future. It is based on the fact that people overattribute certain aspects of ones personality due to lack of cues (verbal and non-verbal). This, however, will not be as much of an issue if technology continues to move in the direction it is in now. Again, the developmental aspect explains how it will take longer to form impressions of others with internet use which will decline in importance as technology works to bring people closer together. The other three features of the hyperpersonal model will also become obsolete for the same reasons because the issue of reduced cues in CMC will be eliminated as we move into the future.

As the internet becomes more accessible, these changes will probably encourage more use and attract a wider variety of people. Therefore, the concept of internet addiction might become a more salient issue in society and more research about it will need to be conducted.

At the current time, this course does not fail to address any important concepts about communicating in CMC. The one aspect that I think should be stressed throughout this course, however, is how the rapidly changing environment on the internet leads to the development of new theories almost everyday.