Reflection on CMC

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) is a communication that occurs via computer mediated-formats or in other words is a communication that takes place between human beings via at least two or more networked computers. For instant, back then people use email, chat room and text message in an engaged communication. Nowadays, with the rise of technology, people have been using new software that has been equipped with video conferencing such as Skypes.

These CMC for instance can be like Email, which is the most popular Internet tool that is used widely all around the globe in order to exchange messages between individual. Mailing lists is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. Usenet newsgroup is a medium where users read and post messages called articles or posts, and collectively termed news to one or more categories, known as newsgroups while Usenet resembles a bulletin board system (BBS) in many respects and is the precursor to Internet forums that are widely used today.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an application layer protocol that facilitates communication in the form of text. The chat process works on a server or client networking model. IRC clients are computer programs that a user can install on their system. Videoconferencing  is a means by which small groups of geographically distant people can hold discussions in real time, during which they are able to hear and see each other and share various other types of data. Last but not least, Hybrid systems is a system that combine threaded discussion lists such as WebBoard.

In addition, there are two forms of CMC which are Synchronous and Asynchronous. Synchronous is a real time, instantaneous communication such as real time Chatting (IRC) and Video Conferencing. People connect to each other in a real time in an instant messaging or video conferencing. In constant, Asynchronous is a non-real time communication such as E-mail and Bulletin Board. People engaged in a communication not in an instant messaging but in a continuous messaging which called as non real-time communication which means that users doesn’t have to be online on the same time.

Apart from that, the synchronous mode of CMC is indeed a combination of written and oral styles of communication. It involves emotions through the visualization of Emoticons in order to show writer’s emotions or motives. ‘Cryptic language’ is also used widely in synchronous mode of CMC which have different denotations when different cases are used. Such cryptic language is like ASAP which stands for ‘as soon as possible’.