Comments on: Focus on the Foreground? http://localoaf.org/2007/03/20/focus-on-the-foreground/ Information: It's the Magic Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:54:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Ken-ichi http://localoaf.org/2007/03/20/focus-on-the-foreground/comment-page-1/#comment-967 Ken-ichi Sun, 01 Apr 2007 05:16:56 +0000 http://localoaf.org/2007/03/20/focus-on-the-foreground/#comment-967 Yeah, the sampling was far from perfect, and the generalizations you quote (based on two citations, one a review paper and the other a general reading book by one of the authors) are somewhat distasteful. In their defense, though, you don't <em>live</em> anywhere near that extended family you mention. I'm guessing you live a fairly independent life in a city far away from those 60 relatives, where navigating the aforementioned minefield is not a daily ordeal. That said, as the child of emigrants from Japan and Ireland, my Japanese family seems very nuclear, without a great deal of intra-generational communication, while my Irish family is both large (seemingly) socially cohesive. So, yeah. Take that, social sciences! Yeah, the sampling was far from perfect, and the generalizations you quote (based on two citations, one a review paper and the other a general reading book by one of the authors) are somewhat distasteful. In their defense, though, you don’t live anywhere near that extended family you mention. I’m guessing you live a fairly independent life in a city far away from those 60 relatives, where navigating the aforementioned minefield is not a daily ordeal.

That said, as the child of emigrants from Japan and Ireland, my Japanese family seems very nuclear, without a great deal of intra-generational communication, while my Irish family is both large (seemingly) socially cohesive. So, yeah. Take that, social sciences!

]]> By: Elisa http://localoaf.org/2007/03/20/focus-on-the-foreground/comment-page-1/#comment-886 Elisa Thu, 29 Mar 2007 00:52:43 +0000 http://localoaf.org/2007/03/20/focus-on-the-foreground/#comment-886 I read the study you mention hoping that it would help me understand how Chinese web users deal with sites that have 3 times more content than a content-rich page in English, but alas it didn't (by the way: 3 times is a made-up number, but the content on Chinese pages is on average much denser than anything else I've ever seen). The study had interesting points, but what mildly irritated me was the interchangeable use of Westerners/Americans and East Asians/Chinese/Japanese. The latter could be almost justified, since they had at least 2 different people who live in East Asia, but the former is absolutely objectionable, since in the study they dealt only with American students. And what really killed me was the conclusion: "East Asians live in relatively complex social networks with prescribed role relations. Attention to context is, therefore, important for effective functioning. In contrast, Westerners live in less constraining social worlds that stress independence and allow them to pay less attention to context." I'll try to keep that in mind next time I go to my Western family gathering with 60 Western relatives and a minefield of role negotiations and rules... I read the study you mention hoping that it would help me understand how Chinese web users deal with sites that have 3 times more content than a content-rich page in English, but alas it didn’t (by the way: 3 times is a made-up number, but the content on Chinese pages is on average much denser than anything else I’ve ever seen). The study had interesting points, but what mildly irritated me was the interchangeable use of Westerners/Americans and East Asians/Chinese/Japanese. The latter could be almost justified, since they had at least 2 different people who live in East Asia, but the former is absolutely objectionable, since in the study they dealt only with American students. And what really killed me was the conclusion: “East Asians live in relatively complex social networks with prescribed role relations. Attention to context is, therefore, important for effective functioning. In contrast, Westerners live in less constraining social worlds that stress independence and allow them to pay less attention to context.” I’ll try to keep that in mind next time I go to my Western family gathering with 60 Western relatives and a minefield of role negotiations and rules…

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