Q11 - Pat: E-mail fosters anonymity

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
ID the Disagreement

Stimulus Breakdown:

P: Email is more anonymous, so it quickly promotes intimacy with strangers that would take years of direct personal contact.
A: You're talking about frankness, not intimacy. Intimacy requires social bonds that require direct personal contact.

Answer Anticipation:
Does A argue that email DOESN'T foster anonymity? No. Does A argue that email DOESN'T remove barriers to self-revelation? No. Does A argue that email DOESN'T promote the sort of intimacy that would take years of direct contact? Yes. So they disagree about whether email does/doesn't provide intimacy that would take years of direct contact. We might also prephrase that Pat seems to assume that intimacy does NOT require direct personal contact.

Correct Answer:
C

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) Amar never talked about barriers to self-revelation.

(B) "Between friends" seems suspicious, since Pat only spoke about strangers.

(C) This is probably right. Pat would say it IS possible, since she thinks that email with strangers can create intimacy. Amar would say it ISN'T possible, because intimacy requires direct personal contact.

(D) "Always" is extreme. Neither person weighs in on this extreme claim.

(E) Same as (A). Amar never spoke about barriers to self-revelation.

Takeaway/Pattern: It should have been fairly clear that the disconnect here was over intimacy, and that word appeared in all five answers. It was more specifically about whether EMAIL could provide intimacy vs. direct personal contact. The only answer dealing with that is (C). "Solely" is very extreme, so one of the two speakers would need to have said something very extreme to consent to it (and Amar said "Intimacy requires social bond, and social bond requires direct personal contact).

#officialexplanation

[denis468]

Please correct me if I am wrong:

Pat says that emails helps remove barriers to intimacy via anonymity that helps remove self-reservation.
Amar says that personal contact acting as social bonding agent helps to achieve intimacy. However, it is also argued that if none of the above mentioned by Amar is present than it is not intimacy but rather simply frankness.

Answer choice C states that Pat and Amar disagree about the fact that two different ways that they go about to achieve result (intimacy) actually lead to it. Amar states that communicating via Email does not lead to intimacy and Pat states that it does.

Regards,

[tommywallach]

Hey Denis,

Yep. You nailed it. Just to hit answer choices real quick:

(A) This could be true or not. Amar says that frankness is not intimacy, but barriers of self revelation are never mentioned, so we don't know where Amar comes down on that.

(B) Increasing intimacy is different, because the friends COULD have direct personal contact as well.

(C) In this example, because Amar says that intimacy requires direct personal contact and Pat does not, we see the conflict.

(D) Nobody here says real social bonds ALWAYS lead to intimacy. Amar thinks they are necessary to get to intimacy and Pat doesn't; neither believe they are ALWAYS enough.

(E) Odds are good the two of them would agree about this. However, Amar thinks that self-revelation isn't intimacy.

Hope that helps!

-t
Answer choice C states that Pat and Amar disagree about the fact that two different ways that they go about to achieve result (intimacy) actually lead to it. Amar states that communicating via Email does not lead to intimacy and Pat states that it does.

[ttunden]

too add further, the keyword in answer choice C is "solely"

there is for sure disagreement between the two for C. B can workout if there is direct personal contact prior. but with C, intimacy with each other SOLELY by email would be in disagreement(amar disagree, pat agree)

[jm.kahn]

Why is it assumed that direct personal contact always involves communicating? For 2nd speaker to disagree with C would require that those who communicate solely by email never have direct personal contact.

One can "communicate" solely by email but still actually have direct personal contact. So 2nd speaker doesn't necessarily have to disagree with C. Any expert can explain this issue?