Extra Credit blog: What the future holds

Every year the internet is becoming more advanced and changes are occurring everyday. Just three years ago before I entered college personal blogs like Xanga were just becoming popular. Today, it is a common system used for homework assignment in classes! The world is becoming smaller all the time because of advances with webcams and programs like Skype. My younger sister and her friends are using their built in Mac webcams to video chat over the internet and post information about themselves on their social networking sights. When I was her age I didn’t even know such websites as Facebook existed nor did I ever foresee their creation. The most unique way to show your personality was through the color of your font and the quotes you put in your AIM profile.
Some issues that I think will have to be addressed are the use of these social networking sites being used by such young children. Once the internet became popular, issues arose with pedophilia and kidnapping when older people would fake their identity online and harm a child once they decided to meet in person. While many children are warned to be careful of speaking with strangers online today, I think that the use of social networking sites will exacerbate the problem. Teens often like to rebel and break the rules, and if they are told not to talk to strangers, they may be inclined to after all. Especially when sites such as Facebook or Myspace provide “proof” that the stranger isn’t lying. If a fourteen year old girl sees that the cute boy Mike they met online really IS the age he says he is and has pictures to prove it, she will think it is safe to meet him. However, online predators could easily find pictures online and form a profile around it. Or if he/she is really creepy (like the story we heard in class), he could take photos of his own son and pretend it is himself. Due to technology and the easiness of posting photos online, I can also foresee some issues other than fake identities. Many young teens are insecure or have low self esteem and often use the internet as a way to gain social approval. This could lead many underage teens to post inappropriate pictures of them online to gain approval of being told how attractive they are. Although I don’t think this will become a widespread, prevalent problem, I have a feeling that the new camera technology will be misused by teenagers, especially since many computers come with it already built in to the machine. Many issues may also arise of children developing social problems or social phobias because they become so used to interacting with others only online. The PIU theory we learned in class covers this slightly, but I think this problem can still be studied a lot more. Different age groups and different environmental factors (such as bullies at school, bad home life, etc) all may have a different effect on ones addiction to the internet. It may also have different consequences for their FtF social interactions as well.
As a result, some theories will hold true for years to come, and others will soon die out. With the anonymity and ability to get responses quickly, online social support will grow in popularity. It allows people the advantage to never have to leave their home, receive help at any hour of the day, and allow them to ask questions that they would be afraid to ask in real life. Also, as I have already discussed, with the ability to alter one’s self presentation online, I think the Hyperpersonal model will continue to explain how people perceive one another online. It helps to explain how people form the wrong impressions of others by over attributing the cues and information they receive. This then causes problems when leaving virtuality and people begin to communicate face to face; of then the person they expect to meet is entirely different. With the ability to self select the jokes you make, the type of information you give out, and what types of interests you want to discuss, when can easily form the wrong impression.
One theory that is likely to change is Cues Filtered Out (CFO). It predicts that a lack of cues in CMC will lead to neutral, negative, underdeveloped impressions of your partner. I think that with the technology we have today and the types of attributes websites have (such as photos, and font colors, and ability to have links, etc), it is very difficult to form a neutral or underdeveloped impression of someone. If anything, you may form a stereotyped and wrong impression (as described by Hyperpersonal), but it is nearly impossible to form an underdeveloped one from a lack of cues.
This class was a lot of fun and it was very interesting to learn about all these theories. Since all of us use the internet and Facebook everyday, many of these theories are very applicable and relatable to our daily life. In the future, however, I think it would be fun to learn more about behavioral changes and flirty behavior on line. Such as when people are very flirty and say certain comments that they would not say in a FtF setting. Or, to learn about people’s desire to use the internet to self disclose personal and private information, such as on Postsecret.com.
Thanks for a great semester!