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Social Media Research
Communication technology and theory: Research into the interpersonal and social interface

Summary: Sociologist Erving Goffman was famous for his acute observations of social interactions. What would he have to say about online communication? About talk and communication through social media, mobile or cel phones? About the interpersonal dynamics of online dating, or online profile management on myspace.com, and so on? If reltionships are maintained not only through what we say but also through how we mean it, and if our online communication tools aren't good at mediation of these interpersonal and face to face (f2f) dynamics, what is their capacity for facilitating communication?

How technology selects attention

Technologies must interface somehow with the human mode of displaying attention. Because they may privilege the voice, the view, or the written word, their means of doing this differs. We can only assume that our means of communicating through technology adapts to each device's limitations as well as possibilities.

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