I like Jerom's thinking, and I'll go a bit futher -- there's something in us that wants to know if the person we're talking to is suddenly going to be having a side conversation with someone else. If they don't immediately identify for us that they're in a grocery store, and then they start saying something to the cashier, we may feel a bit of a space invasion. By establishing "where" a person is, we're also practically establishing our potential for "privacy" -- we're establishing the conversation's "surrounds" and its "co-presence" with outside others (thanks to Goffman). :-) Deanya Jerom Janssen wrote:
Could it be that the question where one is is not geographical in nature per se, but contextual in other ways?
If I call a friend and ask where he is, the answer could be that he is at work. That could tell me that I should keep it short, because he is probably busy and perhaps scrutinized by colleagues. If I know this person well, I might know that he hasn't been happy at work lately (and up for a beer later on), or that he has been working on a project that is about to be wrapped up (no time for beers).
In my experience, the question is often a prelude to other questions, about mood or planning (social) things. In the case of planning social things, it is perhaps not important where one is, but where one could be in T-time. Maybe it is a bit like the 20 Questions game, and that the question is often put forth so soon could be an indicator of its effectiveness in establishing a context update quickly. The word "where" in "where are you now" can perhaps be interpreted as a form of "how" as in "how are you now" in some cases. _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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