In order to focus on higher-order uses of electronic communication, I imposed three broader categories on the eight activities designated on the survey -- "housekeeping," "social dialogue," and "critical dialogue." While activities in all three categories are important to the social fabric of the dorm, critical dialogue is more the kind of higher-order, substantive, reasoned, constructive discussion that we encourage in academia. In the context of the student residence, critical dialogue is a give-and-take among peers about any issue -- local or global -- of mutual interest. Unlike in many of their classes, however, the students who participate in this critical dialogue are writing and responding to a very meaningful audience -- their fellow dorm residents. I included messages classified as metadiscussion -- where the primary content of a message was about the use or evolving conventions of the dorm e-mail list itself -- in the critical dialogue category.
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Survey content category |
Larger social purpose |
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1. Conducting housekeeping activities (lost & found, arranging meeting times, etc.) |
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2. Finding out/publicizing dorm events, programs, & social activities |
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3. Finding out/publicizing Stanford, community activities |
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4. Sharing outside interests with dormmates |
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5. Relieving stress (sharing humor, expressing anxiety, etc.) |
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6. Discussing academics (Chem, CIV, study groups, etc.) |
* |
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7. Discussing social, political, or intellectual issues (grapes, elections, gender relations, censorship, national issues, etc.) |
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8. Discussing dorm community issues (shared experiences or adversity or controversy, behavior issues, Rinc-a-Delt planning, etc.) |
* |
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9. Metadiscussion |
* |