Paper short abstract:

Using the example of academic online teaching, the paper analyses how different forms of digital co-presence are created by social practices and media dispositives and in how far the perception of presence as well as accordant norms have changed in the course of the pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

As Stefan Beck (2000) has stated, technogenic spaces can function as dimensions of socialization. Yet, in how far do they create a sense of presence, of “being there”?

Taking the example of online-teaching within German universities during the covid 19 pandemic, based on data of surveys among university students and lecturers, recent studies and my own observations, I will explore how digital co-presence is constituted and how the concept of presence changes in online settings.

Mainly drawing on affordance theory, ANT and media theory, and parting from Erwing Goffmans (2001) concept of social interaction, I will outline preconditions of the experience of presence and different aspects shaping it – like the engagement of different senses, immersion and the possibility of multimodal interaction. Moreover, I will show specific influential factors produce different forms of online co-presence, e.g., the interplay of media dispositives and users, who create the experience of presence through their actions, perceptions, feelings and constructions of meaning, and their effects on lifeworlds, identities and the (bodily) self.

Also, I will discuss in how far the perception of presence is subjected to societal norms, habitualization processes and strategies of making oneself at home (as described, e.g., by Hermann Bausinger, Ina Maria Greverus and Simone Eggel).

In conclusion I propose that firstly, presence can be interpreted not as a state but as unfolding process of doing presence through social practices and secondly, that presence can be understood as being related to one another.