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Synchronous & Asynchronous Communication

Synchronous communication refers to interactions that occur in real-time, where participants in a conversation are actively communicating while online at the same time. Examples of online synchronous communication would be text messages and other instant messaging platforms, as well as internet telephony, such as FaceTime and Skype. Asynchronous communication, on the other hand, occurs when conversation participants are not online at the same time, and messages are left for the other to receive. Examples of online asynchronous communication include voicemails, emails, blogs, and social media sites.

A 2011 study in Finland suggested that it is synchronicity, not online social use in general, that separates generations in the Digital Age. The study collected data from a survey of over 600 people, ranging from age 15-65, and categorized its participants by 3 distinct generations: Digital Immigrants, or DI (born before 1989); the First Digital Generation, and 1DG (born between 1980-1989, who were exposed to early digital technologies at a relatively young age), and the Second Digital Generation, or 2DG (born after 1990, who mostly grew up with digital technologies). A survey revealed multiple differences in online communication methods between 1DG and 2DG. First, 75% of 1DG reported using online blogs (an asynchronous method), while 59% of 2DG reported using it. Also, 48% of 1DG reported using instant messaging (a synchronous method), while 77% of 2DG reported using it. Of the other 3 online methods tested (internet calls, social networking sites, and discussion forums), 2DG had the highest usage rate of the three generations. DI had significantly lower results for each method except internet calls, which was within 12% across all 3 generations. This data reveals that everyone is using the internet for social purposes, but that younger generations of the Digital Age prefer synchronous communication methods, while older generations tend to use asynchronous communication more often.

Burgoon, Chen, and Twitchell (2005) also conducted an experiment to test how synchronicity affects online interactions. They had their participants conduct team-oriented tasks, and used different methods of communication to observe how people perceived their fellow team members. They proposed that synchronicity affects interactivity, and the results of the experiment supported their hypothesis. They observed that synchronous forms of communications allow for increased mental and behavioral engagement between parties, allowing participants to feel a stronger sense of connection, presence, identification, and social awareness in the conversation.

Forms of Self

One of the most important aspects of online interaction is the presentation of self. Tory Higgins (1987) described three main forms of self: actual self, ideal self, and ought self. Actual self is the set of qualities and characteristics that person actually possesses, the ideal self contains the attributes that a person hopes to someday achieve, and the ought self contains the attributes that a person believes he/she should possess.

Carl Rogers (1951) posited that there was another form of self, one that is not concerned with the future like the ideal and ought self. He called it the true self: a present form of self that exists psychologically and is not always fully expressed within social settings like the actual self.

Bargh, McKenna, and Fitzsimons (2002) conducted an experiment to test how the actual self and true self are expressed by people in face-to-face and computer-mediated interactions, and found that the actual self was more accessible following an initial face-to-face interaction, while the true self was more accessible following an initial interaction online. From the results of their study, the researchers concluded that people like each other better when they meet online instead of meeting face-to-face.