Thoughts on the Visitor & Resident model
The Visitor & Resident (V&R) model got me thinking that perhaps the horizontal continuum of visitor and resident modes is already shrinking or big companies like Google are already working hard to narrow the distance between them. Wondering why I think so? Well, let me give you a simple example: if you are logged into your Google profile, let’s say on gmail, the other websites who you tell to use Google user name, can simply catch your profile and identify you. I typically use momondo to search for cheap flights (https://www.momondo.se/). Momondo wants you to login such that they can give you more personalized services like remembering your last search etc. If you are logged in to gmail, Momondo simply asks you if you want to continue using the same Google profile to login to Momondo. The point I want to make is that although I book travels using Momondo (which I see as a “visitor” task), Google is still enabling me to leave behind a digital footprint by making my login to Momondo easier (and hence making me sort of a “resident”). Interesting, isn’t it?
The V&R model also sort of explained to me why I always thought of people who add their office colleagues as friends on Facebook like something of a strange act ;-). Let me shed more light on it. According to how David White explains the V&R model on this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI&feature=youtu.be, people who are more of resident type, tend to blur the boundaries between “personal” and “institutional” contexts. But I argue that this is something one can control. So even if I consider myself as a resident type (given I spend so much time online each day), I can sort of compartmentalize my “personal” and “institutional” contexts, especially on Facebook. Unfortunately I cannot compartmentalize it 100% as some office colleagues send you friend requests on Facebook anyways :-). You might be wondering why I want to compartmentalize my “personal” and “institutional” identities anyways. Well, it depends on how you want to limit the use of Facebook. For me, if I am meeting office colleagues in office in real life, I would rather add other friends on Facebook. Does this sound weird J?
