Part 7 in this Using Your "SEND" Glands? arc continues the analysis of a signature files as conscious and non-conscious, intentional and non-intentional communications.Part 1 gave some examples of typical signature files and part 2 introduced the concept of psycho-social distance between sender and receiver of an email. Part 3 expanded on the concept of psycho-social distance as the "Six Degrees of Separation" and Part 4 introduced my business signature file as a working model going forward. We started analyzing how the research's findings explain what's in my and others' signature files in Part 5 and Part 6 continued that analysis.
So far we've determined the meaning of font size, file length and the use of a quote in the signature file. Here we go into the "I/Me/Mine"ness of an email signature.
The next line in the signature file is
Joseph Carrabis, Chairman, CRO and Founder
ie, the sender's name as an email link and their title(s). Note that this is all contained on a single line. This placement is an indication of equality, that in the sender's mind (and this is probably a non-conscious, non-intentional decision) their name is synonymous with their title, that they are one in the same. This kind of identification between person and function can indicate the individual's a workaholic, very much enjoys their work or many other things. What we do know is that the sender sees their name and their title as having equal meaning.
You might remember that in Part 1 of this arc only the college administrator didn't equate their name with their function. The college administrator is a female and gender plays a major role how signature files are laid out.
Does the sender communicate primarily with their own gender, with equal numbers of both genders or primarily outside their gender? Each element plays a role in the conscious and non-conscious, intentional and non-intentional communication that is our signature file.
More to follow...
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- Online Anthropology blog posts
- Online Identity blog posts
- Online Privacy blog posts
- Online Trust blog posts
- The Using Your "SEND" Glands? arc
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