Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!limbo!taylor
From: reggie@dinsdale.paradyne.com (George W. Leach)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Too Much Computer is bad
Message-ID: <966@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 9 Jul 90 07:28:02 GMT
Sender: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com
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Approved: taylor@Limbo.Intuitive.Com

Esther Lumsdon responded to a note from Martin Hall with some
disagreement about the value of electronic mail:

> I find it _no_ more difficult to be civil/courteous/polite via e-mail
> than face to face.  I feel more _connected_ via e-mail, not more isolated.
  ...
> I do not think that e-mail technology is promoting a type of isolationism.

I don't think the author chose the appropriate term to describe the
condition.  E-mail and computerized conferencing have enable the 
handicapped and the rural teacher to become "better connected".

> I believe that many people will become confrontative faster in e-mail
> than they will in person as a result of trends in our society that are
> unrelated to e-mail technology.  

No, here there have actually been studies to prove you wrong.  It has 
been shown that certain individuals will open up more in an electronic 
media than in a formal face-to-face meeting situation.  Have you ever
formed a picture in your mind of what a certain person must look like 
based upon their e-mail and usenet postings?  Have you then met that 
person only to find that in real life they don't look or act anything 
like what you imagined them to?

Furthermore, it has been shown in controled studies that people do
tend to forget that there is a human being on the receiving end of your
communications.  Check out the following publications:

Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Murray Turoff, K. Johnson and C. Aronovitch, "Equality, 
   Dominance and Group Decision Making: Results of a Controlled Experiment 
   on Face to Face Vs. Computer Mediated Discussions", Proceedings of the 
   Fifth International Conference on Computer Communication Atlanta, USA,
   27-30 October 1980.  pages 343-348
	
Starr Roxanne Hiltz, "Experiments and Experiences with Computerized 
   Conferencing Emerging Office Systems" in 'The Proceedings of the 
   Stanford University International Symposium on Office Automation',
   Robert M. Landau, James H. Bair, Jean H. Siegman, Editors, Ablex
   Publishing, 1980.  pages 187-204.
	
Starr Roxanne Hiltz, "The Human Element in Computerized Conferencing Systems"
   Computer Networks, V2, 1978.  pages 421-428.
	
Starr Roxanne Hiltz, "Computer Conferencing: Assessing the Social Impact of 
   a New Communications Medium", Technological Forecasting and Social Change,
   V10, 1977.  pages 225-238
	
Dr Hiltz's background is Sociology and Psychology.

George W. Leach