Gender Swaping

I am going to talk about gender swapping as discussed in the book.  Gender swapping is a common phenomenon on Internet in today’s world.  People have all the concealment and inconspicuousness to pose as a different person on the Internet because conversation can be established without being face to face.  Without anybody’s knowledge, the users can experiment with their identities and genders.  Mostly males swap to female gender in order to enjoy the privileges of being a woman.  Whereas, females try to experiment to be males for getting their aggression out.  Past research has estimated that as many as 40% to 60% of Internet users gender swap in their computer mediated communication by portraying themselves as a person of the opposite sex in their electronic conversations in chat rooms, instant messages, and e-mail.  28% admitting to having pretended to be a person of the opposite sex online, and 45% of the total 823 respondents said that they had suspected and questioned the sex of another online participant. 

CMC and Diversity

Large CMC groups appear to benefit the most from using CMC as they generate more ideas per member.  Not to forget that CMC groups easily communicate with group members sitting in different corners of the world with ease.  With today’s technological infrastructure, the long distances between members sitting far away are made less, and connectivity time is also very less with minimum technical disturbances for low costs.  CMC increases the scope of diverse groups that result in more new ideas and various solutions for issues.  Group characteristics such as size, diversity, and physical proximity of group members when they meet, interact with the communication technology to further influence a group’s decision-making process. 

For example: Google has its offices everywhere in the world.  When an international project is implemented, group members from all the countries who are working on different parts of the project coordinate and put together the whole project.  CMC facilitates such diverse group to communicate clearly, as if they are in a close physical proximity.

CMC vs F2F

CMC is Computer mediated communication that enables users to conduct web-based conversation.  Users can speak with any person from around the globe with CMC, by posing as anyone he/ she wants.  There is no authenticity or validation to prove the legitimacy of the person in communication.  There are many cases of fraud and cheating or false identities portrayed on CMC.  A user in conversation can write anything he/she thinks because there is threat of face value.

F2F meaning face-to-face communication.  In this type of communication users are in front of each other so the communication is more effective because the person in conversation can consider the non-verbal communication along with the verbal communication.  The person’s body language, posture, gestures, facial expression speak a lot about his/her motive, authenticity and reliability.  In face-to-face communication sometimes the users become reluctant to express their perspective openly that can jeopardize their face value.  Also in F2F the person in conversation can sometimes hold on to his opinion for being evaluated or judged by the other person.

Using Nonverbal Communication

We can indicate the speaker that we are listening to him with nonverbal communication by nodding our heads, making eye contact, sitting in an attentive manner, which send the message that we are interested in his speech.  We can prove this in any on campus class wherein students convey nonverbally how interested they are in the lecture.  Students who keep checking mails, write on Facebook, read news, or indulge in continuous texting make it obvious that they are least interested in the class.  While students who are interested in the lecture engage in eye contact with the teacher, give response by nodding their heads, raise hand for participation, and respond to the teacher’s remark, humor, or comments.  Fidgeting, frowning, yawning, looking at the watches, reading notes, talking to neighbors, opening and closing bags not only show restlessness, but also distract others and give opposite message to others about their intention and interests. 

Challenging Component of Listening

The book gives 4 components of listening as follows:

1.     Sensing (Hearing the Message)

2.     Interpreting the Message

3.     Evaluating the Message content

4.     Memory: Retaining and Responding the Message

I think interpreting the message can be more challenging in my listening skills because I think a certain way and I try to interpret messages in the same pattern which is influenced by the way I am brought up, my culture, my values and so on.  Especially in a diverse society that we live in, it is important to understand people’s point of view because everyone come from a different background and carry their own assumptions.  While in the course of discussion, I interpret the person in front in a certain way.  But most of the times after the interaction is over when I think about the intentions and background of that person, I feel he tried to say something totally different than what I thought he meant.  So the more we allow our self to understand others’ perspective by listening carefully the better or mutually beneficial our interpretations of their messages can become.