Monk, et al. (1996) discusses the task focus of discussion between different communication media. For example, it is mentioned that writing or typing resulted in much higher proportions of task-focused communication than spoken language. My experience has reflected this to some extent; I've generally found online communication veers from the topic of discussion less often than phone conversations do, for instance. I feel this is also aided in the case of live CMC (as in Instant Messaging) because both sides often have immediate access to topic-related research through the world wide web. In the case of phone and FtF communication, the source of information for the conversation generally has to come entirely from the memory of the two conversation partners.
I wanted to examine the task focus of IM and phone conversations. My task was to get shopping advice regarding the purchase of a piece of electronics (specifically a hard drive). I contacted two friends with a similar amount of knowledge on the subject. I decided to call one and IM another, log the conversations and then examine how many lines of the discussion by the other party were related to the task at hand (getting advice on buying hard drives) and how many were really task-irrelevant.
IM Conversation
Me: so, it's going to be hard drive purchasing time shortly. any recommendations? I'm thinking 500s...
Friend: i've seen external 500GB as low as $155
Friend: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144069&CMP=AFC-Dealnews&ATT=22-144-069
Me: I'm MUCH more comfortable buying from a brick and mortar store, mostly because it's easier to hide that purchase
Friend: well best you're going to get there is like $170 for a 500gb, plus sales tax
Friend: http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=953454&Ntt=500gb&uniqueSearchFlag=true&An=text
Me: that's fine, sales tax isn't so bad near me anyway
Me: well...i don't have money yet, so I hope they keep that price
Friend: ah
Me: well i really need about another TB of space
Me: and by need i mean can use
Friend: well it never really pays to buy space that you can't use right away
Friend: it will be cheaper to buy it later
Phone Conversation:
Me: So I'm thinking about spending some money on new hard drives soon.
Friend: Oh yeah? Running out of space already?
Me: Yeah you know me, I can never have enough storage. Any suggestions?
Friend: Check the ads in the newspapers. Don't buy anything from CompUSA, they totally ripped me off.
Me: What happened?
Friend: They gave me an expired mail-in rebate then refused to let me return the item.
Me: Any other hard drive-related advice?
Friend: Stop downloading so much stuff so you don't need to keep buying them?
Me: Fair enough...
For clarity, I made the focused lines green and the irrelevant lines purple. As a final tally, the IM conversation had 3 lines of useful purchasing advice and 1 line irrelevant to the task, while the phone conversation was precisely the opposite with 1 line of useful purchasing advice and 3 lines of humor and unrelated stories. To some extent, the first conversation was aided by the fact that the friend was able to get task-related information directly from the internet as he was talking to me. Still, the conclusion here is that the IM discussion had vastly more task focus than the phone conversation.
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3 comments:
I totally agree. It is almost ridiculously more useful to be online versus FtF or phone to give task-focused responses. In an instant you can search and find an answer to a question that your conversation partner proposed. I am getting way too used to this convenience and almost feel less useful in FtF than when google is a mouse-click away. damn you google ;-)
I also agree but this is not surprising at all. Usually IM conversations occur for a reason, while telephone conversations do have a reason, but it can usually be settled without using very much time and then the people continue talking because it seems strange to just talk about one thing and instantly hang up. For instance, you wouldnt typically expect to have a friend call you and say "what time should I come over." You respond "eight oclock" and he immediately hangs up on you. You would typically continue chatting for another couple of minutes about things that are important but not as much so as the original question. By the way, I hope you enjoyed the 151 last night.
I also agree with the assessment of task focus in different communication media and with the results from your experiment. However I also believe that it is also dependant on adequacy of the user. For example my mother is not used to IM, and thus the task focus will be interrupted by a lot of track 2 signals.
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