Psychology Of The Internet Essay Research Paper

Psychology Of The Internet Essay, Research Paper

Summary of the Book Today, the internet is a growing community. Millions of

people from all over the world go .online. everyday to check email,

research, shop, or even just interact with someone halfway around the world. As

this community grows, so does the number of interactions between people. The

Psychology of the Internet examines the psychology of new behavior produced by

this novel method of human communication. It also delves into the business

sector of the internet and how certain companies are using this medium to

increase productivity within their companies and corporations. Analysis of the

Book The book provides several examples of how the internet can affect the

quality of an organization.s production. When used in the appropriate manner,

the internet can facilitate interaction between a group 24 hours a day and is

only limited by the availability of a telephone line. The idea that a person

must be in work and at his desk for production is becoming more obsolete as

companies realize the potential of the internet. One impressive way the internet

can help companies is the workgroups that can be formed internationally. A

workgroup is a group of employees striving to achieve the same objective. In the

traditional sense, these groups are formed in a room with notepads for each

person to help them brainstorm and meetings at regular intervals until the

project is complete. The internet revolution is changing all of that. The

workgroups are no longer governed by the geographical positioning of its

members. I found this particularly interesting because the idea of having a

supervisor in Manila, a Research and Development team in Cebu, and a sales group

in the United States is becoming more of a feasible possibility than ever

before. The internet can also help employees overcome inhibitions that they may

not be able to in person. This is due, in part, to the amount of social cues

that are lost over a computer. In a chat room, for example, the two employees

might know nothing about each other, other than the information they provide

about themselves. Therefore, any type of social stereotypes (i.e. sexism,

racism, bigotry) is less prevalent than if perceived in the real world. If the

employees have never met, social irritations may not be as readily triggered

than if in person. For example, if I am irritated by a person who stutters when

he speaks, the chances that he will do so over the internet are relatively low.

This allows me to concentrate solely on the task at hand and not be distracted

by insignificant things. The book speaks of how the internet groups, in the

absence of social cues and orders, had to find a group identity online. In other

words, the lack of social cues also has its drawbacks. Even if the members of

the workgroups concede personal information about themselves, such as their race

or ethnicity, the other members might have no physical basis for the connection.

So if I wanted to bond with a co-worker who was a Filipino in California, I

would more likely do it in person than online. This is due to the lack of human

contact and the perception that I am merely interacting with my computer and not

a real person. With this in mind, workgroups must find new bases for forming

group coherence. The book speaks of the studying of several different

multinational workgroups. All were given the same objectives to be completed in

a given amount of time. However, only a few of the groups completed the task

while only one group did it in the allotted amount of time. The study showed

that the groups that failed lacked consistent interaction. After the initial

meeting, the members of the group did not log on regularly to converse with the

group. Emails were exchanged intermittently among these groups as well. The book

states that the main reason these groups failed was that the interaction,

already reduced by the lack of human interaction on the computer, was limited to

almost nothing. On the other hand, the group that fared the best was noted as

having the most email interaction and regular group meetings. The members of the

group also took it upon themselves to go beyond what was asked of them simply

because they felt a great responsibility to the group as a whole. What caused

this desire and cohesion within the group. According to the book, the group kept

their personal lives out of the online chatting. Therefore, the members knew

very little about the members of the group. The group even agreed to keep their

gender out of the online group. This forced its members to assume that each of

the other members formed the most productive group in which that person could

perform. For example, if I felt that I could work best with three women and two

other men, that became my group. If my coworker preferred working with all

women,

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