One evening I logged onto the website meebo.com and quickly located a chatroom titled, “Chat & Everything Else!” with 36 participants. I entered the room with using my net id (jrn25) as my room name. I was rather amazed by the various features I observed. It seemed as though the 36 participants each choose to all use different font styles and colors. I made the preconceived notion that these colors and font styles somehow related to each of the individuals’ personality types, preferences, likings, etc. I was also impressed by the multiple conversations taking place. It was very confusing to keep up with all of them! Feeling the urge to be more than an observer, I decided to get involved with the conversations. I typed, “Hey guys!” just to see if I got a response. At first the participants seemed to ignore my text and continued their own conversations. But then suddenly I noticed a response in a bright green and bold font. That was when my conversation with Ryan began.
“Hello there, JRN!” was the response I receive from the handle “Sutton_Dude.” I quickly responded with a friendly “Hello!” followed by a smiley face. I was suddenly asked if I would like to join this individual in a private conversation, to which I agreed. The conversation started off with “Sutton_Dude” asking where I am located, my name, and how am I doing. After answering I asked the same. “Sutton_Dude” typed, “Here’s the link to my MySpace page… it pretty much sums me up!” After viewing the MySpace page and chatting more in the private room, I was able to form an impression of “Sutton_Dude” (who I learned is actually a 20 year old named Ryan from Sutton, TN) using the “Big 5” personality categories:
Conscientiousness: Everything Ryan had to say in the chatroom seemed very well-thought out and properly phrased. His MySpace page expressed an interest in achieving higher educational goals and striving for excellence in life.
Agreeableness: Ryan right away came off as a very agreeable and socially pleasant person. His messages where often followed by exclamation marks and happy emoticons. He seemed to show a sincere effort in striking a strong and interesting conversation.
Neuroticism: Though it was difficult to conclude based on the chatroom text alone, Ryan’s MySpace page presented the notion that he is emotionally stable. He seemed rather upbeat and generally content. His blogs showed little sign of bothersome; they seemed to focus on the positive aspects of his life and that of those around him.
Openness: His font and text was that of bright green and his use of emoticons hinted that he was creative or imaginative. The layout of his MySpace page also seemed very colorful and cheery.
Extraversion: My first hint that Ryan was an extravert was the fact that he was the one that initiated the conversation. He showed a sense of interest in others and a liking of engaging in conversations with new people.
Using the “Big 5” traits and the chatroom/MySpace interaction, I was able to create a general impression of Ryan. I assumed him to be an open and accepting guy who likes to have fun and meet others socially. The hyperpersonal model best fits my impressions because I was able to form a strong sense of who he is and his personality without having much breadth in characteristics or details. However, my chatroom conversation also provided me with behavioral confirmation. The details on his MySpace also provided me with cues and facts about his life that I would not have been able to know via the chatroom alone. Though the cues in the chatroom were strong indicators of his personality, those cues were not enough to give hint of certain things, such as his likes & dislikes or even his sexual orientation.
After completing my “experiment” I realized that though it may not be the best form of communication, one can definitely form strong impressions of others using connectors such as chatrooms. Though these impressions may not be initially correct, there are other ways of learning more (i.e. MySpace) and confirming behavioral and personality traits!
-Joshua Navarro
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4 comments:
Hey Joshua,
You make a very good observation about the different fonts and relating it to the individuals' own tastes. I would probably have the same notion.
It's interesting that you had the same initial experience and response when you first entered - seeing numerous convos going on at once and it was difficult to keep up. Must be surprising to get a private chat request from a guy lol.
You also described the Big 5 traits very well and accurately. I like that you support your claims with detailed examples, which help to explain each trait.
I would agree that the hyperpersonal model works best in this case, since intensity is greater than breadth.
Hey Joshua,
When we first got this assignment I was curious to see if anybody was going to go to chatrooms associated with synchronous environments such as myspace. It was interesting to me that immediately upon starting a chat with you, your subject sent you to check out his myspace account, where he had already pre-determined his profile. His font, language, and what he wanted to reveal about himself had already been carefully laid out in an asynchronous environment, and he sent you directly there before getting into much "synchronous depth" with you. It seems as though this combination of synchronous and asynchrnous environments almost allows individuals to "pre-screen" eachothers' profiles before deciding to proceed with the conversation. Although on one side it did allow you to quickly learn a lot about your subject, at the same time it obligates you to form judgements on information that might not necessarily be true. I find myself doing this in my life- meeting people in person and checking out their facebook profiles to learn more about them without face-to-face interaction. Everytime I catch myself, or my friends, doing so, I am dissapointed in the superficiality associated with that concept. However, interestingly enough, this pre-judging association to his myspace profile in this environment led you to agree with the hyperpersonal model and gain a positive impression of your subject.
Hi Josh,
I am very impressed by your detailed description of the 5 traits, although it sounds like Ryan was a great person to talk to and made it easy for you :) It seems like most people got stuck with cybersex predators their first time around (and I know it took me forever to find someone to start a real conversation with).It must have been nice to immediately speak with someone extraverted and nice and open (as can by seen by his willingness to immediately share his myspace page with you and thus have you learn more about him).
In class we have been learning about how the hyperpersonal model relates to instant messaging, so I think it’s great that you had a chance to apply it to a MySpace page as well. Through talking to Ryan, certain attributes of his personality could be confirmed by the way he expressed himself both in conversation and by what was on his website. It was easy to tell that he has an open personality (and have this trait/behavior be continuously confirmed) because he was so open and friendly about cross country and classes, as well as sharing extra details through Myspace. Perhaps more work should be done to apply the hyperpersonal model to current social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
I went in to a meebo chat room as well. The strange thing that I am realizing from your post is that a lot of users are readily willing to give out their myspace page. However, you hardly ever see people handing out facebook pages. I wonder why that is... The guy that I was chatting with on meebo gave me his myspace page without me even asking. Then, he asked for my myspace. I was pretty reluctant since I keep my myspace page pretty personal. As soon as I handed it over I was somewhat regretful. Maybe it is because I am of the facebook generation instead of myspace. I would never friend random people on facebook, so why do I (somewhat) readily it on myspace? Hmm... interesting to think about. Maybe its the way the two websites are built and the interactions they afford.
Otherwise, it seems like your buddy Ryan was an all around chat room nice guy. I didnt even see anything about sexual over tones in your post. ;-) My meebo experience didn't go quite as well.
Good job explaining everything and sticking to the hyper personal model. ;-)
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