Bene's post Take 2

"Instant messaging, literacies, and social identities" (2005, Lewis & Fabosu) outlines some very interesting characteristics in IM use and users. The prime appeal of Instant Messaging seems to lie in the phone/pass message feel of things or “hybrid spoken/written nature of IM,” as the authors call it, where “users have to be good at sounding as though they are speaking in written texts.” IMing mirrors real life, makes it hyper real and fosters hyper-connectivity, expanding on face-to-face encounters, yet at the same time emboldens due to anonymity or what I would call ‘cyber distance.’

Much is conveyed through IMing such as style, tone, content, intimacy, emotion, distance, popularity… But, as the authors point out, and what I very much agree with is that email seems more appropriate for more substantive discourse with ‘bigger words,’ and both email and the telephone provide a more immediate and practical means of telling longer stories.

The subjects reveal their use of language cues for specific purposes by imitating/mimicking as a way of ingratiating oneself into a group of strangers, of tone modulation for more/less intimacy, or raising/lowering the language bar, and changing styles depending on who the audience is and what the social context might be. I like this notion of “social currency” which is so predominant during the teen years (and often beyond, especially in competitive jobs) and the elements of timing or withholding responses so as to appear a certain way… just like in real life. Phone and face-to-face strategies are being transformed and adapted… leaving “more space for play, parody, and performance.” Quite surprising and reassuring to me was the “seasonal use” of IMing (more in winter, less in summer) which denoted a preference for face-to-face.

Although the researchers lean towards on analytic reflection focusing on the act/results of IMing as a way for students to explore strategies, style, tone, community, etc., they do hint at what I feel can done in a class setting, i.e. "dramatic interpretations and other artistic modes of expression." I am thinking of simulation activities, role play, wordplay, dialogues in a foreign language, and think-aloud exercises. By impersonating a character (Oprah interviews Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein together, for example) using the styles they are accustomed to in IMing, not only could students convey ideas but they could doubly explore style, tone, content, strategies, community from the perspective of another (imagined, famous, dead, or foreign).
I also think that tandem IMing can be great with group activities to pair people off as team members. Members of a pair boost each other’s self confidence, motivate each other as in the double-dating example in the text of two boys and two girls.

Being able to print out a dialog or group conversation and sharing with the class would add to the notion of analysis and promote further discussion.