Let's Get Started: An Analysis Of IRC Openings

With the advancement of Internet technology and the development of society, the modes of communication are changing with the times. Internet Relay Chat (IRC), the Internet's first widely popular real-time, quasi-synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) system, has been gaining popularity since its birth in 1980s. This study explores features of IRC interactions and how users initiate interactions with an attempt to build interpersonal relationships in IRC environment. Both users and researchers face similar problems in dealing with the complex ways to initiate IRC interactions and further to build and maintain the relationships consisting of purely textual interaction.Most IRC research has mainly dealt with relationship development and impression management or technical aspects in IRC interaction (Julie, 2001). but little research has set out to investigate how interactions are initiated and how openings may influence the building of interpersonal relationship in IRC environment. Based on previous interaction research, particularly the relationship-oriented (Laver, 1975; 1981) and the structurally-oriented (Schegloff, 1968; 1975; 1986). one major research task of the paper is to find how dyadic interpersonal interactions are initiated in contextualized IRC environment.To address the problem of IRC opening, a combined approach of empirical and qualitative research methods is employed. First, IRC interaction is extensively and empirically contextualized, focusing on observable interaction effects to deal with the importance of the technology without falling into the trap of technological determinism. Second, the use of Conversation Analysis (CA) in analyzing the entry problems and phatic token choice, verbal or nonverbal, and greetings response sequencing, etc., are merged with the contextual details of dealing with or using interaction features of the medium.