Impoliteness in computer mediated communication

Includes bibliographical references (pages 120-122).Among enculturated internet users, social niceties that in past generations seemed commonplace and nonnegotiable for maintaining close-knit communities and servicing solid interpersonal relationships seem to be all but dissolving as virtues within CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) interaction. It is now disrespectful speech acts of impoliteness that often seem to govern the social interactions of many virtual communities. Two forms of impolite speech in particular: flaming, conflictive expressions of antagonistic behavior; and trolling, the internet equivalent of skulking about an online community looking for trouble or baiting users into an argument are the most common forms of effrontery-centric-speech associated with CMC. As this phenomenon of online aggressiveness has become more pervasive and widespread, this thesis aims to take a deeper look at the roles and pragmatic functions that antagonistic behavior plays in negotiating the social and cultural norms of an online community. In order to accomplish this, I apply a reconstituted form of politeness theory, impoliteness theory, to two sets of data that represent distinctly different discourse types of online interaction: online public discussions from MSN.com and recorded voice chat in preand post-game lobbies found within the competitive online multiplayer portion of the videogame Halo 3. Within the analysis that follows, this thesis showcases various idiosyncratic speech patterns typical of CMC discourses and discusses how these net-centric features of modern digital communication influence the interpretation of (im)polite speech acts. Furthermore, this thesis investigates to what degree the collectively established conventions of these CMC discourse patterns act as identity markers that help enculturated net users to further establish identity and communicative solidarity within their discourse communities. This thesis concludes that speech acts of (im)politeness in online discourses do play a role in negotiating cultural and community norms. I further conclude that instances of flaming or trolling are not simply unmotivated acts of aggression, but are methods of expressing solidarity with others of particular ideological stances, means of establishing a makeshift pecking order between interactants, indicators of discourse community membership based on levels of enculturated discourse competence, or are similarly used for fulfilling the personal face wants for one's own self-gratification at the expense of others