Predicting the Future (Bonus Assignment)

In the past ten years, the internet has already affected so many business models, relationships, and the flow of information. With so much multitasking and other behaviors affected by the internet, it seems that the internet will continue to influence our behaviors, self-image, and decision-making. COMM 245 has influenced the way I analyze and interpret how we manage ourselves online, how social networking affects us, and how the psychological spaces and their attributes have affected social computing.

There are two major theories that I believe will not change too much as the internet progresses (the impression management model and the hyperpersonal model). I would argue that some theories will not hold water in the future (especially the cues filtered out theory). I think we will continue to choose whether or not we want to mediate our communication based on locus and valence (O’Sullivan). I also think most people will continue to take active steps to manage their own image and engage in selective self-presentation and put their “best foot forward.” On the other hand, we will definitely not have poor, underdeveloped impressions of others just because there are reduced social context cues in a CMC environment (CFO perspective).

One of the major issues that will need to be addressed is the issue of weighing selective self-presentation with portraying an accurate version of oneself. Many of us maintain Facebook and other online profiles, but do not update them too regularly or do not provide enough detail to make them accurate. As more employers do online research about their potential hires, it will become more and more important in the future that one be portrayed of course in the best light, but weighing that portrayal with accurate facts.

I have enjoyed COMM 245, as it is one of the most pertinent and practical classes for someone with my interests in media, technology, and the internet. As both a user and a scholar of the Internet and internet-related theories, I can now analyze internet usage from both perspectives and form more informed positions. My only suggestion for COMM 245 in the future is to make it even more applied and practical by focusing on how we can effect change in our online behaviors and how we can understand the effects of how ecommerce is now a social process.