Text Vs. Telephone Topic Changes

The Monk et al. piece discusses the apparent disorder in conversational structure when comparing text versus non text communication. In the instance of text based communication, the piece argues that it will be less organized and contain more topic changes due to texts inherent ability to keep a formal record of past utterances. In non text based communication such as face to face or telephone, the piece explains that this form of communication will be more organized because voice is ephemeral and no record is kept to refer back to if confusion occurs. Due to my past experience and from the small experiment listed below, I agree with the Monk et al. piece. Below is the experience I had when comparing voice to text based communication.

Voice (using telephone)

Brendan: Hello?

Rachel: Hi whats up?

Brendan: Not much you?

Rachel: Nothing really, what are you doing today?

Brendan: Oh not much probably just doing some work and then I will go for a run.

Rachel: Sounds like fun.

Brendan: Not really.

Rachel: (laughs) What did you think of that movie we saw last night?

Brendan: I thought it was OK but a bit too girly.

Rachel: You would think that.

Brendan: Yes I would.

Rachel: Where are you going to go for a run?

Brendan: Probably just around campus.

Rachel: Cool, I think I will go for a run later too.

In the conversation above, the only line that detracts from the linear nature of the conversation is line 12. This line refers back to line 5 about going for a run. This supports the Monk et al. argument that voice is more organized and contains less topic changes.

Text (using AIM)

Bg00765: Hey

Rseegs28: whats up

Bg00765: nm u?

Rseegs28: nm just doing some work

Bg00765: feeling any better today?

Rseegs28: not really my stomach still hurts

Bg00765: what kind of work r u doing

Rseegs28: just some stuff for marketing

Bg00765: sucks. I have pretty much no work to do

Rseegs28: Thanks

Bg00765: haha, I thought u don’t even like marketing

Rseegs28: I don’t but I still have to do the work

Bg00765: Hmm perhaps

Rseegs28: uh huh

Bg00765: you want to hang out later?

Rseegs28: yea prob as long as my stomach is feeling better

Bg00765: im sorry, ill give u a call later, feel better

Rseegs28: Thanks

In the text conversation, more disorganization is apparent than in voice communication. Line 7 refers back to line 4, line 11 refers back to line 8, line 16 refers back to line 6. These are very large gaps between lines that show many changes in topics. This is consistent with the notion that text based communication is less organized than voice communication due to the record that is kept of past utterances.

My results agree with the Monk et al. piece. The telephone speech proved much more organized while the text conversation was much less organized with more topic changes.