How well or poorly do the examples from the article “Beyond Being There” (1992) capture your experience of hybrid social/collaborative/working experiences today? What elements of your hybrid life are missing from this piece?A lot of the ways that we interpret communication via physical vs. electronic space highlighted in this article feel applicable today, particularly in the way we perform synchronous and asynchronous communication. We continue to meet in person to pursue the intimacy that online communication (synchronous or asynchronous) lacks, and we continue to use email or DM to fill in for the need for asynchronous communication that physical interaction lacks.
The article feels less applicable when speaking about synchronous telecommunication and archiving, as a lot of the tools developed are now able to capture a wide range of verbal intonations and facial expressions. Remote communication has become widespread even for professional environments, especially since the beginning of the pandemic when the majority of the population had transitioned to work from home. However, the "ease" of synchronous communication assumes that users from both sides have reliable tools to capture and render video and audio I/O and a high speed internet connection, an access commonly barred by wealth, resources, or location.
For those of us that are lucky enough to have the option of both on hand, I found that having electronic tools to chat remotely changes the experience by adding a level of choice in the amount of anonymity we want to preserve. If we deem our appearances unfit for camera, we could simply turn it off or add a filter. If our surroundings are too noisy, we could mute our microphones temporarily. If we wanted to further conceal our identities while sharing our stories, we could modulate or pitch shift our voice. Animated characters such as Vtube avatars can replace our corporeal body while mimicking our facial expressions and motions with an increasing amount of complexity, allowing us to communicate without needing to reveal any details about our real name, age, and face. I think the telecommunication problem as referenced in the article about how "we must develop tools that people prefer to use even when they have the option of interacting in physical proximity as they have heretofore... to do that requires tools that go beyond being there" has been achieved by giving us the control of moderating and modifying the way we present ourselves from the convenience of our own homes. All of these potential modifications do decrease the level of intimacy commonly felt from online interactions, but it truly provides an experience otherwise impossible from physical communication. It provides an alternate possibility for, but without fully replacing, physical communication... for now.
Adding a strange unicorn spout (to be fixed)
Adding a table (legs to be added)