representation of face-to-face and online communicative interaction

In the face-to-face interaction, the speaker comes and goes to join and leave the conversation, while, during the online interaction, the speaker apears and disappears. The reason speakers appear and disappear in online interaction is that the joining and leaving is based on the accessability rather than on neighboring to someone to talk to. Moreover, even if we say there is the physical movement and the trajectory the speaker browse through the online world, the trajectory would be so complex and would not follow a simple geometry, because the relation of space and time is not one-on-one in the online world. In the real world, the physical presence is required for conversation because the speaker can exist only one place at a time. However, in the virtual world, the speaker can appear at several places at a time, chatting with each people at the same time or participating in several discussions simultaneously. Following four representations are illustrating the space specific and time specific of the face-to-face and online interaction.

(1) face to face: the space specific
-come and go


(2) online: the space specific
-appear and disappear


(1”) face to face: the time specific
-i am, now, here.



(2”) online: the time specific
-i am, now, here and there and else where.