Sunshine Skyways

Organization members who occupy high-status positions tend to dominate group discussions, which in turn gives them more power and social influence than members in low-status positions. For example, managers talk more than subordinates and men talk more than women. Higher-status members are more vocal even when they are not more expert on the topic under consideration... (Weisbrand et al., 1995, pp. 1124, 1125).

Does computer-mediated communication promote equality among members of a group? A person in cyberspace who communicates in text messages is not seen; s/he has no discernable body. Consequently, without face-to-face contact, physical features, such as race, ethnicity, and gender, that are used to determine or assign status to and discriminate against a person are missing. Also missing are the person's posture, proximity, touch, body movements, facial expression, eye behavior, smell, and vocal cues, which are used to communicate with others. One could say that in text-based cyberspace, every person is reduced to the written word.

Does this reduction of every group member to text eliminate racial, gender and other differences? The answer would be "Yes" if there were no verbal cues to differentiate members. However, the answer is "No." Text includes both intended and unintended cues that are used by readers to assign race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and other labels to the author.