[Air-L] Where Are You?

[M. Deanya Lattimore]

I like Jerom's thinking, and I'll go a bit futher -- there's something 
in us that wants to know if the person we're talking to is suddenly 
going to be having a side conversation with someone else.  If they don't 
immediately identify for us that they're in a grocery store, and then 
they start saying something to the cashier, we may feel a bit of a space 
invasion.

By establishing "where" a person is, we're also practically establishing 
our potential for "privacy" -- we're establishing the conversation's 
"surrounds" and its "co-presence" with outside others (thanks to Goffman).

:-)
Deanya


Jerom Janssen wrote:
> Could it be that the question where one is is not geographical in
> nature per se, but contextual in other ways?
> 
> If I call a friend and ask where he is, the answer could be that he
> is at work. That could tell me that I should keep it short, because
> he is probably busy and perhaps scrutinized by colleagues. If I know
> this person well, I might know that he hasn't been happy at work
> lately (and up for a beer later on), or that he has been working on a
> project that is about to be wrapped up (no time for beers).
> 
> In my experience, the question is often a prelude to other questions,
> about mood or planning (social) things. In the case of planning
> social things, it is perhaps not important where one is, but where
> one could be in T-time. Maybe it is a bit like the 20 Questions game,
> and that the question is often put forth so soon could be an
> indicator of its effectiveness in establishing a context update
> quickly. The word "where" in "where are you now" can perhaps be
> interpreted as a form of "how" as in "how are you now" in some cases.
>  _______________________________________________ The
> Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association
> of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or
> unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
> 
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
> 
>