9 -- You're not THAT important.

Away Status

studying
class
din din
studying
HILLS!
Call me!! <3

Away Status

running outside....eventhough its soooo windy....if u wanan see us we will b running circle and hills are stuart field

Away Status

Tell me that you're sorry, didn't think I'd turn around and say
That it's too late to apologize, too late
It's too late to apologize, too late

***

As we have often discussed in class, the internet can often be very deceiving in that one may either think he is being viewed by the entire internet community, or that no one would take the time to view his actions, or his behavioral residue. In the medium that I am going to address, increased internet use reveals the individual's belief that many more people than is likely are actually paying attention to his actions.

This week, I will be talking about what I like to refer to as compulsive away-message changing. This relates somewhat to earlier class discussions of away-message checking, but is more closely in accordance with one's self-presentation, and his perceptions about the internet world. I would describe compulsive away-message changing as the constant and detailed online activity of updating one's message to the world, usually addressing what he is doing at that particular moment. In other words, if someone engaged in compulsive away-message changing, he would log onto AIM before he left his room in the morning and put up an away message like "at class", then as soon as he got home from class, change it to "at the library", or "out with friends", or even sometimes a more detailed message like "bookstore, hw, meeting, desperate housewives, more hw". Not that the latter was my away message last night or anything...

The nature of AIM definitely could be, at least in part, facilitating PIU (problematic internet use). Because there are pretty much always "buddies" online that may or may not be looking at your away message, people might be more likely to believe that people are reading their messages when they probably aren't. In relation to Caplan’s model, we can look at this activity in light of themes of his “Theory of Problematic Internet Use and Psychological Well-Being”. Firstly, we should examine whether or not this internet space proves that people with psychosocial problems hold negative views about their social competence. In this area, I’m not sure that Caplan’s theory is proved because we are only able to view a small sample of internet users, and it is difficult to determine self-esteem from a short away message. However, the idea that people with psychosocial problems prefer online interaction to interpersonal attraction may have some distinct evidence as seen in the detailed messages people leave. For example, people who put up emotionally charged song lyrics, as seen in my third example above, may be trying to cry out for attention in a way that would be too bold to actually act out in “real life”. Such away messages with clearly well thought-out wording may include hidden messages. In this case, the away-message changer clearly believes that people will spend the time to not only read his or her message, but to de-code it as well. In reality, this is probably quite unlikely, save for the people who are seriously procrastinating. Even then, they probably have better things to do than sit and de-code away messages.

If people do engage in such compulsive away-message changing, they probably feel the need to be at their computer more often in order to update the world on their activities. This would, in accordance with Caplan’s theory, ensue more time online, and probably less social capability when they aren’t at the computer. In my opinion, those people who feel the need to share their every action with the world probably aren’t having as much fun as they are trying to convey.

In other words, instead of “talking” all the time about exactly what you’re doing, it’s probably healthier to just go out and do it – without caring who knows and who cares.