The literature suggests that irony production expands in the developmental period of adolescence. We aimed to test this hypothesis by investigating two channels: face-to-face and computer-mediated communication (CMC). Corpora were collected by asking seventh and 11th graders to freely discuss some general topics (e.g., music), either face-to-face or on online forums. Results showed that 6.2% of the 11th graders’ productions were ironic utterances, compared with just 2.5% of the seventh graders’ productions, confirming the major development of irony production in adolescence. Results also showed that adolescents produced more ironic utterances in CMC than face-to-face. The analysis suggested that irony use is a strategy for increasing in-group solidarity and compensating for the distance intrinsic to CMC, as it was mostly inclusive and well-marked on forums. The present study also confirmed previous studies showing that irony is compatible with CMC.
The aim of this study is to understand how teenagers use Internet forums to search for information. The activities of asking for and providing information in a forum were explored, and a set of messages extracted from a French forum targeting adolescents was analyzed. Results show that the messages initiating the threads are often requests for information. Teenagers mainly ask for peers' opinions on personal matters and specific verifiable information. The discussions following these requests take the form of an exchange of advice (question/answer) or a coconstruction of the final answer between the participants (with assessments of participants' responses, requests for explanations, etc.). The results suggest that discussion forums present different advantages for adolescents' information‐seeking activities. The first is that this social medium allows finding specialized information on topics specific to this age group. The second is that the collaborative aspect of information seeking in a forum allows these adolescents to overcome difficulties commonly associated with the search process (making a precise request, evaluating a result).
Résumé L’objectif de cet article est de déterminer si les dispositifs de communication écrite médiatisée par ordinateur (CEMO), tels que le courrier électronique ou les forums, rendent difficiles ou non l’expression et la compréhension des émotions. Pour traiter cette question, nous nous appuyons sur des travaux portant sur la communication des émotions en situation de face-à-face et de CEMO. Deux thèses contradictoires sont mises en évidence. Selon la première, la CEMO engendre des incompréhensions sur la dimension émotionnelle ; selon la seconde, la CEMO est favorable à la communication des émotions, les échanges étant perçus comme intimes et les individus manifestant leurs émotions par divers procédés. À partir d’une analyse critique de ces travaux, nous proposons d’expliquer ces contradictions et avançons quelques principes méthodologiques, qui pourraient permettre de les dépasser.
Résumé La prise en compte des affects dans la conception et l’évaluation des technologies est un sujet important depuis quelques années. Cependant, cette démarche soulève encore de nombreuses questions du point de vue théorique et méthodologique. Le but de cet article est de contribuer à identifier les fondements d’une telle démarche. La première partie de l’article est consacrée à la place accordée aux affects dans l’évaluation à partir d’une analyse des travaux sur l’évaluation de l’acceptabilité et de l’expérience utilisateur. Par ailleurs, nous discutons de la relation entre les qualités instrumentales d’un outil et les affects de l’utilisateur ainsi que de l’apport et des limites des différentes méthodes d’analyse des affects. La dernière partie de l’article présente quelques perspectives de recherche sur ces questions.
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