Question:

Discuss “facework” – how does “computer mediated communication” (a)effect the process of management, ethics, attraction/repulsion?

The process of “facework” changes when in the form of CMC or face-to-face communication. When you are texting a person you can be someone completely different from who you usually are without feeling embarrassed because you can’t see the person. Texting and talking online can change the process of ethics and attraction/repulsion.

Through texting you can say things you would never normally say. If the situation is flirtatious, or tense because of fighting, all you have to do is type your emotions out and send it at the click of a button. Then after the fighting or flirting if it turns out you want to make up or don't like the person, you must perform “facework” to redeem yourself and help your relationship back to its feet, that's what you decided. This is called “corrective facework”; this “is characterized by efforts to repair an identity already damages by something that was said or done” (Close Encounters 38). Even though you have no inhibitions when you are texting and think you can say anything to the person on the receiving side, the truth is in the end you really didn’t mean the things you said and you need to make yourself look like a better more caring person.

In the second "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" movie one of the characters discusses how with email and texting "you can have a whole relationship with somebody without even looking at them." The fact that you can have a whole relationship with someone without even seeing their face is really sad. It started with Snail mail and then there was email and after that AIM was created and now we have texting. This proves that our generation is dealing with emotions and their relationships via text compared to past generations which used the telephone, snail mail, or email. The fact that children as young as ten maybe even younger are getting cell phones and texting all day long is really sad.