Abstract
Abstract
The article examines naturally-occuring video-mediated breaks from work as social activity and focuses on the use
of waving gestures in their openings and closings. Drawing on multimodal conversation analysis as a research method and recorded
virtual breaks of two work communities in Finland as data, the study shows that, contrary to openings and closings in a physical
breakroom at the workplace, waving ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ is a prevalent practice in video-mediated break openings and closings. By
waving their hand(s), which is typically accompanied by a verbal greeting or farewell, participants make their own arrival or
departure, or their orientation to the arrival or departure of someone else, visible and explicit. Thus, waving facilitates the
management of co-presence in technology-mediated encounters. Further, by waving in conjunction with other upgraded features of
openings and closings, participants engage in important relationship maintenance work during their encounter.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology,Communication,Cultural Studies