Differences between communications using e-mail and BBS in an e-counseling environment

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the differences in communication when using e-mail and BBS (bulletin board system) in a counseling environment for school-refusal students. Subjects were asked to view a short movie whose central theme focused on bullying - a possible factor in some school-refusal students absence from school. Subjects were then asked to issue their thoughts and feelings about the contents of the movie using either e-mail or BBS. The impact of using either e-mail or BBS to convey ones thoughts and feelings were analysed by focusing on three psychological aspects within this experimental study. Firstly, the subjects ability to write their own true thoughts, views and opinions on the clip viewed. Secondly, the thought processes behind their written comments. And finally, subjects ability to empathize with the bullied girl in the movie. For ethical reasons school-refusal students did not act as subjects, instead 21 university students participated in this study. The results of questionnaires administered after this experiment were as follows: subjects found it significantly easier to write down their own true feelings when using e-mail easier than BBS. There were no significant differences in the thought processes that lead to comments being written in either e-mail or BBS. Open-ended questions allowed us to find that many subjects preferred e-mail as it 'allows me to put my thoughts down in a tidy and coherent form'. With BBS, its main strength and weakness was derived from the fact that 'my comments can be seen by many people'. Subjects also found it significantly easier to empathize with the bullied girl when using e-mail as compared to BBS. The result of this study support the idea that e-mail and BBS can be effectively utilized as e-counseling tools.