3 'Caliguy' and 'Caligurl... guy'

For the third assignment, I decided to enter a chat room and change my identity. Switching to a female, I quickly realized how easy it would be to fool people. I entered as ‘Caligurl’, expecting the name to stir interest. I was correct. As soon as I said hi to everyone in the room, I received immediate requests for private conversations

I began my own private conversation with ‘Caliguy’. He first asked the usual, “asl?” After finding out my perfect 5’6”, 107lb body size, he began asking about my clothes. Unlike many people in chat rooms, he quickly switched topics and asked about my life. As our conversation continued, he started showing some affection. I told him I was attending Stanford as a sophomore communication major. He was very interested in journalism and asked a few questions about my studies. After searching the internet to answer some of his questions regarding my time at Stanford, ‘Caliguy’ told me he recently graduated from Berkeley as an electrical engineer. By this point, he had persuaded me that he was a nice person overall. He told me that he would be traveling to Palo Alto, CA within the next week and was interested in taking me out on a date. Oddly, by this point, I had fully assumed the role of ‘Caligurl’. I knew it was time to break the news.

I felt bad telling him that I had deceived him. He seemed like a nice guy hoping for a date. When I told him, he was a little shocked, but not as much as I would have expected. I told him I was a male conducting a communication study. He was very understanding, so I apologized and bid him good luck with his search for a girl.

Managing my impressions was not difficult. As I told ‘Caliguy’ about myself, I had a bit of trouble specifying details about Stanford and the area. To relieve this problem, I simply got information from Stanford’s website and wrote details down on a piece of paper. As we got to know each other better, I started answering as if I, myself, were speaking to a girl. I gradually assumed ‘Caligurl’s’ identity and grew more attracted (in the sense of personality) to ‘Caliguy’. Towards the end of our conversation, I was confident he would not detect my deception. I could tell he was very interested in me as a person. Since I was giving my own ideas and opinions, I knew I could not go wrong.

The psychological space on the internet that I chose certainly affected my presentation of ‘myself’. In the chat room, ‘Caliguy’ had no means of seeing me in person. Therefore, my self-description conveyed that I was a perfectly built college girl. In addition, my nonverbal behavior could not be seen, so ‘Caliguy’s’ lack of cues led him to believe I was telling the truth. Additionally, I used social associations (Stanford) to convey that I was intelligent on top of everything else. The combination of these self-presentational tactics worked to both deceive and genuinely interest ‘Caliguy’.