Impression management in high context societies: 'Saving face' with ICT

Bryan Semaan, Bryan Dosono, Lauren M. Britton

Research output: Chapter in Book/Entry/PoemConference contribution

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

High context societies are defined by their strong interpersonal relationships, where upholding the shared values of the community, writ large, are of the utmost importance. That is, they prioritize collective identity over individual identity. Through a qualitative case study drawing from a set of 90 semi-structured interviews with Iraqi citizens who were living in Iraq during the 2nd Gulf War, we show how through ICT uses and appropriation, people shape, or influence, social complexities within high context societies. We found that people appropriated ICTs in a way such that they could "save face" and manage other people's impressions of themselves and, in turn, maintain a positive collective identity. We then explore the use and appropriation of ICTs for impression management in high context societies as a complex process-one that is both social and technical-introduce the notion of technological imperialism, and develop a model of face saving practices that takes collective identity into account.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCSCW 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages712-725
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781450343350
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 25 2017
Event2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2017 - Portland, United States
Duration: Feb 25 2017Mar 1 2017

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW

Other

Other2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPortland
Period2/25/173/1/17

Keywords

  • Appropriation
  • Culture
  • Ecology
  • High context
  • Home life
  • Impression management
  • Iraq
  • Middle east
  • Traditions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Human-Computer Interaction

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