IM vs. face-to-face interviews

Interestingly, when reading my thesis-articles, quotes from face-to-face interviews appear just as eloquent as quotes from instant messenger-interviews. Yet talking (putting experiences into narratives on the go), is rarely a very smooth process, and I have edited quotes from face-to-face interviews to make them more readable (I'm not doing a conversation analysis in any case). I consequently disguise a rather interesting and important methodological aspect of instant messenger versus face-to-face interviews.

Consider the following excerpt from a face-to-face interview with 17-year old Morten:

"I have therefore added many people to my Live Journal friends-list just so that I can read what they write by watching my friends updates without them having the possibility to. Maybe they think they are on my friends-list and get to read all of my entries, but they really don’t get access to read my closed entries, because they are not in the right group like, you know."

I was rather intrigued when I realised how much I have actually edited the above quote, but I guess (hope) the meaning is intact:

"I’ve added many people to my Live Journal friends-list to be able to keep track of their updates. Maybe they think they get to read all of my closed entries, but they can’t because they are not in the right friends-group."

My MSN-interviews (only five) last longer in time, but yield about 1/3 of the words if compared to face-to-face interviews. The answers are more concise with a lot less filling-words. Consequently they do not contain a lot less in "content".

concerts

Wolfmother
Originally uploaded by dreadfuldan.

Wonderful Nina bought tickets to yesterday's Wolfmother concert at fabulous Sentrum Scene. The ambient was electric last night, and I can easily understand why they received three Arias back in October.

Last weekend, Nina, Jo and I experienced Pleasure's cool 80's disco-music at John Dee (though the new album doesn't quite match the last album from 2003).

I'm now so looking forward to the 15th of March: Dolly Parton live in Oslo!

My taste in music is so post-modernist eclectic, ha, ha :-D

phone calls

A journalist from Kanal 24 just called me, hoping that I could verify her hypothesis that we spend less time on the phone because we spend more time communicating through other means (texting, IM). I couldn't give her a definitive answer. There are just too many variables at play here. My informants often claim that they would prefer to call their friends if money was no issue. But they are young, and there's no doubt young people spend more time socializing than older users. If you're a busy grown-up professional with family obligations, there's hardly too much time chatting on the phone? Clearly texting and IM are pretty flexible (and hence valuable) communicating-tools for users with little time to spare. Actually I doubt that we are spending less time on the phone (statistics are welcome, Norsk Mediebarometer does not say anything about time spent on the phone). When 92% of Norwegians (2005) have their own cell-phone, it seems unlikely that we spend less time on the phone.

I'm not particularly fond of talking on the phone myself, though I spend a lot of time talking to Lasse (who now works in Hamar during the week). We have time to talk, there's a geographical distance between us, and the telephone supports a level of intimacy consonant with the bond we share.

No wonder I wasn't able to answer her question.