- The Communication factor
Last, but by no means, least--considering the enormous relevance of language as the one tool we all depend on, on the Internet--here are a some pertinent comments regarding language use on both these means of communication on line--Bulletin Boards and Chat Rooms.
As a direct result of the basic difference between Bulletin Boards and Chat Rooms, in that the latter offers real time communication, there is also a contrast underlying language use in these two modes of on-line communication.
We have seen that, as you are logged into a Chat Room, you are communicating in real time! What does that mean in terms of language?
Well, you have less time to formulate your sentences. It is a similar situation to that which you face when you speak: you do not really have time to think about what you are saying. Responses and reactions come out pretty instinctively or automatically.
When you log on to a Bulletin Board, in contrast, you may have taken whatever time you wished, off line, in order to prepare the text that you are posting. This contrast (which is basically the very same regarding spoken versus written language) carries certain advantages and certain disadvantages, as follows.
Whereas in the Chat you have no time to elaborate well what you have to say, as it is the case of messages you post on a Bulletin Board, on the other hand you have the advantage of having the recipients of your message right there, at reach.
What does that mean? They are able to check back with you right away, in case something you wrote does not appear clear to them!
This possibility of "give-and-take," of immediate feedback, which the Chats allow constitutes a tremendous advantage over the situation in which you produce a string of text that must stand all by itself, and communicate all in its own, as is the case of text you post on a Bulletin Board, as well as text that you put up on your Home Page!!! You are not there to clarify anything, to aid that text in communicating effectively what you had originally intended to.
So, if in the Chats you have the drawback of possibly producing (and finding) less elegant texts, you have the advantage of being able to invest on your original communicative intent, an advantage that you do not enjoy whether on a Bulletin Board, or on your own Home Page.
Likewise, you have the advantage of checking back on whatever you may not have fully understood, for as long as the author of that string of text remains logged into the same Chat Room as you are.
Conversely, when you visit someone's Home Page, or read the postings on a Bulletin Board, all you are left with is that one string of text. Pls. keep this in mind, for it is quite a relevant aspect in communication!
And pls. remember further: what appears clear to you, the author of a text, the one person who has experienced that particular communicative motivation, this is by no means necessarily also clear to someone else, who depends exclusively on that one string of text that you have produced, in order to retrieve the entire content of that one message that you have intended to put across! This is true not only of communication on the Net, but of any written communication, in general.
In sum, what you must not forget is that in the Chat, as in oral communication (spoken language), we all have the possibility of checking back, as well as of rephrasing what we have intended to say. This possibility, however, is absent from any form of communication that does not take place live, or in real time--such is the case of written communication, amid which is what you may post on a Bulletin Board.
(4:11)
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