MS 190: Authorship is the course website for the Fall 2006 Media Studies senior seminar at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
only slightly related
Submitted by neurotica on 25 September 2006 - 2:45am.
I don't know if this really deals with authorship but it does deal with media studies. I live in a suite with some friends and one of them got a wireless router thing. Tonight there were four of us in someone's room, and we all had our laptops and were connected to the wireless and began chatting on aol. For some reason it was infinitely more satisfying to be chatting online with people when they're in the room with you, than having an actual conversation or talking on AIM when you're not together. I would type something and look up at the person i just typed to. Or we would have a speaking conversation and would be typing to each other at the same time. I don't want to have enjoyed that cuz it seems rather silly and a sign of what is wrong with society...but i did enjoy it!
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yes
I know what you mean. Probably the same appeal of texting someone at a time when there would be absolutely no problem calling them. It probably takes longer too, because if you're anything like me, your thumbs are fat, and it takes you about 5 minutes to make a goddamn text message. Really what I should do is just call the person and say "Hey, we're drinking in my room" then hang up. Instead, I text "Hey, we're drinking in my room" and when I look up from that tiny screen I'm 5 minutes older. In conclusion, I agree with what you said.
You know you're addicted to
You know you're addicted to texting when people compliment you on your speed. Though, in my defense (and in defense of all those texters out there) it's handy in situations when you have something urgent to tell your friend can't actually make a phone call, like in class! Not that I ever do that...
further agreement
I, also, am guitly of texting and IMing when I could call. Somehow it is more comfortable and more satisfying. I think that part of it is that, if I cannot not have a full face-to-face interaction with a person, I would rather not have a half-assed pretend one, which is what phone conversations seem like to me. You can get *some* of the non-verbal communication, so people feel comfortable continuing to communicate that way, but not *all* of it, so a lot is lost in translation. With text, IM, or email, you know you are limited to what you can express in words (or formatting) so I feel we have the potential to communicate more clearly in text, in the situation of long distance communication.
Of course none of this explains you and your friends IMing in the same room. I've definetly done that with roommates before. I think part of the appeal is that your words aren't uttered the moment you conceive of them, there's more built in reflection time (though people make varying degrees of use of it). You have the option to delete words once they're written, but before they're sent, if you don't like the look of them, but once you've said something, there's no taking it back, no matter how much you regret it or how much it isn't at all what you *meant* to say, because you *did* say it, all the same.
Anyway, it's a cultural trend that's worthy of further discussion.