For Assignment 3 I chose option one, and tried to see what it would be like to be a male in the world of chat rooms. I never go into chat rooms, so it is hard to compare the experience to a ‘normal’ one, however I am pretty sure as a female I would have received a lot more attention. I went in as “Hot_Lax_Tiger” hoping that people would assume I was a male who plays lacrosse. Basically, I was ignored in the chat room, and was not much more successful with my attempts for private conversations. I tried IMing three different girls, trying to make my opening as manly as possibly. I tried “yo,” “how’s it goin” and “Hey (insert name),” only to be ignored by all three. Eventually I IMed ‘Sunshine” and with the suave opening line of “Hey there Sunshine” my conversation began.
Using as many self presentation tactics as possible, I tried doing my best male impression to convince Sunshine (or Kathy, as I later found out) that I was the coolest guy ever. I failed miserably at first, by trying to sound cool and use the word ‘yo’ often, which she completely called me out on and made fun of me for. I immediately dropped using this phrase and instead focused on using social associations and attitude expression to develop my male persona. I tried thinking of how a guy would present himself in a chat session when trying to present his “ought self.” I tried to think of how boys normally act and their social norms and values. I figured the type of guy ‘hot_LAX_tiger” would be would be self promoting, cocky, and flirty. I tried to present my attitude accordingly by asking lots of questions to get a more physical description. Practically after everything she said I commented on how that made her so ‘hot’. As the conversation went on she “lol”-ed and giggled a lot more; in fact, once she found out I was a lacrosse player the emoticons and the number of exclamation points she used increased. I do not know if I became a better conversationalist after I admitted this fact, or if she became more interested in me, but after this point it was much easier to play the role of a male. After I associated myself with a sports team, I began basing my self description off of that. I told her I was 6’1 and buff
Pretending to be male in this type of space made it easier to deceive the receiver, because I did not need to worry about nonverbal behaviors and looking like a guy. Instead I had my screen name as a prop to prove I was a male, and was able to take advantage of the space and focus on “my male attributes.” I tried to engage in BIRK (“basking in reflective glory”) by talking about how athletic I am and how I go to Cornell. Unfortunately she was from Canada and never heard of Cornell, but I still tried my best to brag and express my macho, self-proud personality. Ordinarily, I try to be modest, so the whole situation was very strange for me. I also am a fan of using lots of emoticons myself, so it was strange to have to restrict myself from using them and overanalyzing the right way to phrase my responses. Overall, this experience taught me that when it comes to chat rooms and interactive chat rooms…it is much more fun to be a girl!
I posted comments on:
1. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3186874989969223722&postID=581857555076450706
2. http://comm245purple.blogspot.com/2007/09/assignment-3-who-uses-telephone-anymore.html
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Hello Alison,
I really enjoyed reading your blog! I had a similar experience when I entered a chat room. I decided to take on the identity of a 17 year old teenage girl (as opposed to my real identity of a 20 year old male). I was very much interested in your descriptions of the various tactics you employed while communicated in others in the chat room. I, too, created a screen-name that I felt fit the female gender and represented a teenage girl. Like you, I felt that if my name gave an initial impression that I was of a specific gender and had specific motives, then my audience (other chat room users) would be more apt and motivated to communicate with me. It was also a clever idea to try to use lingo and phrases that you thought a lacrosse-playing-college-guy would use in order to start a conversation with a girl. I did the same in order to give the impression that I was actually a teenage girl. We used these tactics as a way of present the “ought self.” But that brings me to my question and concern: Why is it that we believe that the “ought selves” must perform in a certain manner? Even though it may be sad to say, I feel that you and I both relied on stereotypes to create our alternative identities. Because we switched genders and personalities, we resorted to notions and ideals of how guys/girls are suspected of acting. As with most stereotypes, the stereotypes of “lacrosse guys” and “teenage girls” may not always be correct. Like you, I felt it was very simple and somewhat amusing to deceive the receiver… but I’d much rather stay as my own gender and self while in chat rooms!
-Joshua Navarro
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