Tong and Walther explain the trends in relational maintenance, trends in CMC and blogging, and technology serving intimate relationships and family communications. Both authors consider the performance of behaviors which sustain both the existence of the relationship and satisfaction of each partner to be important in the enactment of relational maintenance Also five general typologies were included from the research of Stafford and Canary concerning relational maintenance in personal interactions. Specifically two classifications exist in the study of relational maintenance for CMC. These are dedicated to geographic location, proximate of physical area and long-distance separation. Their indications revealed that CMC has the potential to improve relational communications relative to face to face interactions. A concise history of CMC forms for creating relational maintenance was also explained. This provided a linear progression from the earliest forms of email to the realm of Web 2.0. Each step along this communications spectrum several trends were revealed. Web 2.0 fosters much more in terms of personal choice and output of communication.
My thoughts.
People are influenced by proximity and shared values, no matter what the sophistication of technical advancement. People have found ways to overcome obstacles of physical distance through means of available technology in terms of real time interaction. Yet we still can only communicate on within of the programming of systems presented to us.
Current Events
I once taught at a high school in Columbia South Carolina with multi-ethnic population from 2001-2006, around the same era as the rise of CMC and SNS communications. The population of this high school had ethic groups that included Vietnamese, Arab, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Chinese, Japanese, German, and many others. I noticed from their conversations in art class that these specific groups sought or pursued same ethnic interactions on the internet more than trying to meet new people of other cultures and ethnicity. The student’s desire to join specific cultural groups were not always from family insistence. Was this just a trend in dichotomies or burgeoning technology? Or an attempt to maintain or re-establish cultural norms before they were forgotten?
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