Computer Mediated Communication

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Computer-Mediated Communication November 28, 2011 BMG 210 Organizational Behavior Evaluation_____ Computer-Mediated Communication: From Facebook to Twitter, from email to e-meetings, from texting to streaming video, information technology is the driving force behind our personal and business life. Advances in information technology have allowed for the immediate exchange of information across geographical boundaries and times zones once impossible. This exchange of information or any communication that occurs between two or more networked computers is known as Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). Indeed these advances have benefitted many people throughout the world, but they also changed the face of communication forever. Generally CMC is impersonal in nature and results in participants becoming uninhibited in their communications. The being or feeling of anonymity that CMC affords can make people feel less restricted by group or social norms. Furthermore, it removes the non-verbal cues from communication due to the technological constraints of the Internet, thus reducing the emotional quality of the message. Finally, CMC has negative effects on group decision-making, cohesion, and perception of members and tasks. Consequently, CMC has become a lesser form of communication compared to face-to-face interaction and has adverse effects on group and organizational interaction. Computer-mediated communication was once confined to technical users and was considered somewhat arcane, but this no longer holds true. Computer-mediated communication is a key component of the emerging technology of computer networks. (Kiesler, 1984) Today one can communicate with others without physically standing in their presence, which affords one a sense of anonymity. This feeling of anonymity affects our perception of others, and how we then interact based on these

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