2.7 INTERNET-BASED ELECTRONIC RESOURCES AND SERVICES
2.7.5 Computer-mediated communication
CMC has been defined as synchronous or asynchronous electronic communication and computer conferencing whereby a sender encodes text messages that are relayed from the sender‟s computer to the receiver‟s computer (Gaunlett 2000). CMC includes e-mail, IM, online chat rooms, bulletin boards and Listservs.
(a) E-mail
E-mail is a mediated communication technology that enables users to send messages in the form of electronic letters to other users in asynchronous time. The Pew Internet and American Life Project indicated that e-mail is the most frequently used internet communication tool among college students (Jones & Madden 2002). Of the students who participated in the study, 62% reported using e-mail as their primary medium of communication on the internet; 72% of the
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students checked their e-mail at least once a day, which points to e-mail usage being part of their daily routines (Jones & Madden 2002). E-mail may be short text messages that are sent between individuals, but it is also used to define the electronic distribution of complete documents composed of text, data, images and other forms of information (Gauntlett 2000). E-mail messages are generally delivered in a matter of seconds, regardless of the geographical location of the receiver. An e-mail message can be sent to an individual or to many e-mail addresses/individuals simultaneously. The history of e-mail can be traced back to 1972, when an ARPANET researcher Ray Tomlinson wrote the first program that could send and receive messages over the internet (Perry & Schneider 1999). Today e-mail is used to communicate in business and across diverse fields, and is the most popular feature of the internet.
E-mail is one of the internet services that is heavily used by the general public and students in particular. Sairosse and Mutula (2004) concur with this and say that the majority of users visit cyber cafés for e-mail communication. Adomi, Okiy and Ruteyan (2003) adds that teenagers and young adults, most of whom are students, usually use e-mail to communicate with their friends and relatives.
Aiken, Vanjano, Ray and Martin (2003) note that college students spend a large amount of time sending and receiving e-mails. This is in agreement with the findings of the PEW Internet and American Life Project study reported by Jones and Madden (2002), which indicated that e- mail is the most frequently used internet communication tool among college students. Another survey, done by Laite (2000), involving 406 graduate and undergraduate students at Shippensburg University (US) indicated that all the students used e-mail.
Due to the one-on-one nature of e-mail, its use has made lecturer–student interaction easy. When students and lecturers are geographically separated, they can still communicate with each other (Bailey & Cotler 1994). From the lecturer‟s point of view, e-mail can be used in a variety of ways, such as giving quizzes, providing updates and answering student‟s questions (Poling 1994).
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IM is a form of mediated communication technology that enables users to communicate with other users in real time. A user sends a message and it appears on the receiver‟s computer screen. The receiver then responds by sending a message back. A synchronous conversation can then occur. Many different instant messaging programs are available, such as America Online (AOL) Instant Messenger (AIM), ICQ (“I seek you”), Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk. IM has taken hold in the college student population; they are twice as likely as the average internet user to use it (Jones & Madden 2002). The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 29% of students who were surveyed reported that IM is their primary internet tool and that on any day, 26% of college students use IM (Jones & Madden 2002). Leung (2001) found that for many Chinese college students, using ICQ was a daily activity, with 32% of respondents indicating that they chatted on ICQ daily. In another study conducted for the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the researchers found that IM was primarily a young person‟s activity (Rainie 2000). They found that 59% of the survey participants 18 to 24 years old engaged used IM (Rainie 2000).
Flanagin (2005) said that people of typical college age constitute a considerable and important population of instant messaging users
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The research that has been done seems to indicate that IM is widely used by young people. Teenagers use it to ask each other out, to break up and to make plans with friends (Lenhart, Rainie & Lewis 2001). Hard af Segerstad and Ljungstrand (2002) found that college students use Webwho, a Web-based IM program, to collaborate on assignments and coordinate social activities.
This suggests that IM is used for both tasks and social activities, and has instrumental and ritual uses.(c) Online chat rooms
Using online chat rooms is another activity in which many young adult internet users participate. Online chat rooms are a form of mediated communication technology, like IM, whereby users can communicate in real time; a user can have a conversation with many people instead of just one person. Users enter a chat room which may be for people with a specific interest (such as knitting) or for people of a certain age (such as those who are 50 years or older). Once in the chat room, users are able to have a conversation. 53% of internet users aged 18 to 24 years have
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participated in online chat rooms at some point and 8% have engaged in it as a daily activity (Rainie 2000). Rumbough (2001) found that 37% of the college students he surveyed had at some point joined a chat room to interact with other people, with 5,8% of them doing so daily. While the number of college students who used online chat rooms as a daily activity was not as high as those who used e-mail and IM daily, the percentage was still large.
Research on online chat rooms indicates that users use it to have conversations and to initiate relationships with others (Peris, Gimeno, Pinazo, Ortet, Carrero, Sanchiz & Ibanez 2002). Some people used chat rooms for emotional support (Whitty 2002), while others used it as a way of coping with trauma (Stone and Pennebaker 2002).
(d) Listservs
Listserv lists are electronic discussion lists that are supported by a special software application called Listserv. It facilitates one-to-many communication and is also a general purpose file server (Gauntlet 2000). Listservs have been formed on a wide variety of special topics which users subscribe to, for example there are Listservs for those who are interested in music, those who are interested in specific software programmes such as INNOPAC and CDS-ISIS and those who are simply cataloguers sharing their experiences on the internet.
(e) Newsgroups
The newsgroup feature is like a huge bulletin board on which people post messages and comments others can react to and add further bits of information and insight (Gauntlet 2000). Although it is similar to a Listserv, the major difference between the two is that when one joins or subscribes to a newsgroup, e-mail messages are not automatically deposited into one's account. One has to go to the newsgroup to read the messages.
Much research has been done about people‟s use of CMC and internet technologies in general. Rumbough (2001) found that 37% of the respondents in his study had used the internet to meet
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someone. McKenna (2002) also found that people use the internet to form new relationships online in addition to maintaining relationships with their family and friends. People also use the internet as a way of maintaining relationships with friends and family whom they know offline (McKenna 2002). In particular, mediated communication seems to play a role in the maintenance of one type of relationship: long distance relationships (Dainton & Aylor 2002). Although the telephone is still a popular means of long distance communication, CMC has become a way for many people to maintain relationships across a distance. One explanation that Dainton and Aylor (2002) propose for people‟s choice to use CMC in long distance relationships is the relative inexpensiveness and convenience of the medium. Papacharissi and Rubin (2000). found that interpersonal utility and convenience were two of the reasons why people use the computer to communication, along with information seeking, entertainment and to pass time. Flanagin and Metzger (2001) found 10 motive clusters for people‟s internet usage: information, learning, playing, leisure, persuasion, social bonding, relationship maintenance, problem solving, status and insight. These researchers found that mediated interpersonal technologies (including both CMC and the telephone) were used mainly for social bonding, relationship maintenance, problem solving and persuasion (Flanagin & Metzger 2001). The above research were general in nature and were not done in an educational setting, therefore they did not reflect results on the use of CMC among university students.