| Video-mail is a computer-mediated communications technology with unique characteristics that affect its adoption and use. Video-mail is recorded synchronously, distributed asynchronously, conveys multiple simultaneous cues with persistent messages, and requires special equipment to compose but not to view. A number of disciplines, such as communications, mass media, and social psychology have offered theories that may be used to explain video-mail use and adoption. Communications theories include cues-filtered-out, Information Richness, Social Presence, Social Influence and Social Information Processing. Mass-media theories include limited effects approaches such as Uses, Gratifications, and Dependency Theory (UGD), Expectancy Value Theory, and Dependency Theory. Social psychology offers Social-Identity De-Individuation Theory and Flow Theory.; A longitudinal case study of video-mail use was conducted at a private elementary school. Many of the results were consistent with theoretically expected behavior, however no theory explained all of the observations. Evidence showed that users respond in-kind to video-mail they receive, which is consistent with social influence theory. Flow theory successfully predicted significant early use of video-mail due to its novelty and high degree of message control. Cues-filtered-out correctly predicted a high degree of social presentation in video-mail. And dependency theory was consistent with video-mail viewing behavior.; Other theories had mixed success in predicting behavior. Information richness and social presence theories accurately predicted a high degree of socio-emotional activity, but video-mail use for highly equivocal tasks was not evident. A modest level of hyperpersonal communications occurred as anticipated by social psychological theories, but there was no evidence to support the contention that higher status individuals would be more likely to adopt video-mail than lower status ones.; The relatively high level of personal presence of video-mail was perceived as having greater social risk. To avoid being judged for less than perfect communications, video-mail composers used affinity, familiarity and proximity as a selection criterion for recipients. They also required uninterrupted private time to compose messages, and were concerned about their recipient's ability to receive messages and respond in-kind. Finally, technical proficiency and training were correlated with high levels of use as well as low failure rates. |
