Investigation of the Relationships Among Socially Interactive Technologies, Communication Competence, Social Cognition, and Formal Written Discourse
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AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SOCIALLY INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES, COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE, SOCIAL COGNITION, AND FORMAL WRITTEN DISCOURSE Jacob S. Turner A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August, 2009 Committee: Melissa M. Spirek, Ph.D., Advisor Ronald Shields, Ph.D., Graduate Faculty Representative Stephen Croucher, Ph.D. Thomas Mascaro, Ph.D. ii ABSTRACT Melissa Spirek, Ph.D., Advisor The current research project called upon a two-study design to examine college students’ use of socially interactive technologies (instant messaging programs, online social networking websites, blogs, and text messaging applications on cell phones). The first study was implemented to examine the frequency and form of college students’ use of socially interactive technologies. The second study investigated whether the informal interactive written discourse typical of socially interactive technologies is permeating college students’ more formal writing. Using this two-study design, college students’ responses from a media use questionnaire were collected for Study I and examined in tandem with results from a quantitative content analysis of two formal messages written by students during an experimental computer laboratory session for Study II. The current investigation was couched in a framework based on the communication competence and social cognition literatures. These disparate fields were called upon together within an ecological schema provided by the theory of affordances to focus on the ways internal and external factors might contribute to communication outcomes in formal writing situations. The first study’s results revealed that socially interactive technologies are generally popular among the college students in the current sample. Results from Study I also revealed that among the students in this sample, college grade point average and levels of need for cognition were negatively related to the frequency with which students use certain interactive media. The second study’s results revealed that frequent use of socially interactive technologies in general, and certain formats in particular (text messaging and instant messaging), was consistently associated with the use of particularly informal written communication techniques. Specifically, iii problems with formatting as well as the inclusion of a nonstandard orthography and grammatical mistakes were all significantly related to frequent use of socially interactive technologies among the students in the current sample. Study II also revealed that multitasking on the computer while writing the two formal messages was significantly related to problems with formatting as well as the inclusion of grammatical mistakes in the two formal documents. The consistent relationships among socially interactive technology use and decreased communication competence in two formal writing situations suggest that further concerted attention from communication researchers regarding the possible relationships between socially interactive technology use and formal written discourse is warranted. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my most sincere thanks and gratitude to my dissertation chair and advisor, Dr. Melissa Spirek. Her knowledge and dedication to this project, as well as her undying support of me as both her mentee and a future colleague in the field, will be forever appreciated. I would also like to express my appreciation for my committee members: Dr. Stephen Croucher for his invaluable statistical assistance and thoughtful council throughout the project; Dr. Thomas Mascaro for his creative ideas and his want to draw as much out of me and this study as possible; and Dr. Ronald Shields for his personal guidance and sage-like presence. In addition, I would like to thank Cory Hillman for helping me code data and allowing me to administer surveys in his class. And thanks as well to Dr. Victoria Ekstrand, Dr. Stephen Croucher, and Sandy Mencer who also graciously allowed me access to the students in their classes. This project would not have been possible without the students. Although their contributions were felt from afar, I must also acknowledge my family. My parents have always had faith in me throughout my educational pursuits. It has meant the world to me to know they believe I can do it, whatever it is. And many thanks to my brother and sister- in-law for all their encouraging words over the past year. Additionally, my mother-in-law and father-in-law also deserve formal acknowledgement here. From the numerous scholarly articles my mother-in-law sent to me to the warm wishes they both imparted in person and from a distance, at some point I realized I could count on them just as I always have my own parents. Finally, I would like to express my unwavering gratitude to my wife, Sara Turner. Sara not only acted as a coder, an editor, and a sounding-board throughout this project, she also had the strength to carry me across the finish line even as she worked diligently on her own career. I simply could not have done it without her. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION…………………………….………………………………………… 1 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………….…………………. 10 The Written Discourse of Socially Interactive Technologies ….………………. 10 The Relationship Between Modes of Communiation and Written Discourse…………….....................…………………………………………… 20 The Fragmented Media Audience and Language Change ………...….. 22 The Relationship Between Language and Cognition.………….……… 27 Communication Competence and Social Cognition…………..……………….. 32 Conversational Sensitivity………………………………………………. 33 Communicative Adaptability…………………………………………… 36 Cognitive Flexibility…………………………………………………….. 37 Need for Cognition……………………………………………………… 38 Theory of Affordances………………………………………………………… 42 Current Investigation…………………………………………………………… 54 Hypotheses and Research Questions for Study I…..……………………. 56 Hypotheses and Research Questions for Study II………………………. 60 CHAPTER II: METHOD……………………….……………….….…………………. 63 Study I…………………………………………………………………………. 63 Participants……………………………………………………………… 63 Materials………………………………………………………………… 64 vi Page Procedure………………………………………………………………... 66 Study II…………………………………………………………………………. 67 Participants……………………………………………………………… 67 Materials………………………………………………………………… 70 Procedure………………………………………………………………... 72 CHAPTER III: RESULTS………………………………………………..……………. 82 Study I………………………………………………………………………… 85 Study II………………………………………………………………………… 105 CHAPTER IV: DISCUSSION…………………………….…………………………. 131 Summary of Study I and Study II ……………………………………………. 131 Implications of Frequency of Students’ SIT Use ……………………………. 134 Theoretical Implications of the Theory of Affordances……………………… 139 Theoretical Implications of Study I Related to TOA………………….... 140 Theoretical Implications of Study II Related to TOA…………………... 142 Theoretical Implications of TOA in Relation to Multitasking…………... 152 Theoretical Implications Related to Communication Competence and Social Cognition……………………………………………………………………… 154 Relationships Between Cognitive Flexibility and SIT Use………………. 159 Relationships Between Communicative Adaptability and SIT Use..……. 161 Relationships Between Cognitive Sensibility and SIT Use………………. 162 Relationships Among Communication Competencies, Social Cognition, and Students’ Formal Written Discourse………………………………………. 164 vii Page Challenges and Limitations of the Current Studies…………………………… 167 Recommendations for Future Research…………………………….…………. 170 FOOTNOTES…….…………………………….……………………………………… 177 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………… 178 APPENDIX A…………………………….…………………………………………… 202 APPENDIX B…………………………….…………………………………………… 204 APPENDIX C…………………………….…………………………………………… 214 APPENDIX D…………………………….…………………………………………… 217 APPENDIX E…………………………….…………………………………………… 219 APPENDIX F …………………………….…………………………………………… 221 APPENDIX G…………………………….…………………………………………… 232 APPENDIX H…………………………….…………………………………………… 233 APPENDIX I…………………………….……………………………………………. 262 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1.1 Ten Examples of Speech-like Language in Chat Rooms and Later SITs………... 14 2.1 Intercoder Reliability for the Variables used in Study II………………………… 78 3.1 Frequency of College Students’ Use of Socially Interactive Technologies……… 86 3.2 Frequency of College Students’ Use of Traditional Media………………………. 88 3.3 Pearson Correlations Between Minutes per day Using SITs and Minutes per day Spent Reading…………………………….……………………………… 90 3.4 Spearman Correlations Between SIT Use and Reading as Compared to Other Students…………...........………………….……………………………………… 93 3.5 Spearman Correlations Between Liking SITs and Liking Reading……………… 95 3.6 Correlations Between SIT Use and College Grade Point Average………………. 97 3.7 Correlations Between Need For Cognition, Book Reading, and Television Viewing…………………………….………………………………… 99 3.8 Correlations Between Need for Cognition and SIT Use…………………………. 101 3.9 Correlations Between Cognitive Flexibility and SIT Use………………………... 102 3.10 Correlations Between Communicative Adaptability and SIT Use……………….. 104 3.11 Correlations Between Conversational Sensitivity and SIT Use …………………. 106 3.12 Correlations Between Overal Score and SIT Use..........................………………. 108 3.13 Correlations Between Score on the Letter and SIT use...........................………… 110 3.14 Correlations Between Score on the Email and SIT Use…..........................……… 111 3.15 Correlations Between Combined Formalness Score and SIT Use………….....…. 113