Initially I opted for the first option, in which I would try to switch identities. I assumed the nickname 'vaulterchic' because I am a pole vaulter, and I am around pole vaulting girls and know a bunch very well, so I figured I would be the most believable that way. It worked just fine, people would ask for personal chats and the quick and dirty asl interaction would happen, then quite quickly, they would ask if I wanted to role play. I told the person that I was actually a guy and wasn't interested, they cussed me out, called me weird and just left. The second individual just signed off, and the third said 'weirdo' and signed off. I got fed up with it, and moved onto the second option.
For my second option, I had two great examples in the last 24 hours. I am in a very weird situation with my housing, which has led to an uncomfortable situation with our somewhat-former landlord. Essentially, we are no longer living in our leased house, someone else that our landlord found and signed in is, and we wanted to get back our last months rent and security deposits, because we do not trust him. In the past, we have done a mix of emails and some uncomfortable phone calls. This weekend, because it was not urgent, and because we do not like the message personalization of the phone medium, we chose email to address this. If like he has in the past, chooses to ignore this, we will be forced to call him and get an answer. This seems to follow both theories Media Richness and the Impression Management Model. As of now, it is moderately less equivocal of a task, and we don't need a personalized answer, so we choose a leaner medium, if however, he chooses not to answer, it will become more equivocal, and we will be forced to move to the medium with more availability of feedback, more personalization of the message, and more cues. It follows the Impression Management Model though because the valence of the interaction is going to be negative, and we want to avoid a rich medium because of it.
The other choice of medium that I had this weekend were for favors. I just booked a ticket to go home with my girlfriend (to Hawaii!) this winter. I was going to buy the ticket myself for over $800, a semester of groceries, but found out her father had a bunch of old northwest miles he does not want, because his company flies United now. I opted, while asking this favor of him to donate some miles to the surfing-on-xmas fund, to do a mix of a much richer and leaner medium. I used, because it was such an equivocal task, a very rich task, a phone call, because I wanted to be able to use all of the elements of richness to my favor. But at the same time, because it was about me, the self, I opted to have my girlfriend make the call, essentially choosing the lean medium for the locus because I preferred the mediated form when it was about me.
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2 comments:
I definitely see how your logic connects to the Media Richness Theory, but I can also argue that your situation can fall under O'Sullivan's theory (if I understand your situation correctly). I gather that dealing with your landlord is usually a negative experience, based on your statement that you are unable to trust him. Though the locus is on him, the valence is highly negative. Also, e-mail allows for much more clarity because you have time to formulate your exact words. You can also reitterate your message several times in a very clear, direct way.
I like how you point to an interesting aspect of communication medium with your dealings with the landlord. It sounds like your intentions are to accomplish a certain business oriented task (like getting your rent/security deposit back) with your landlord. So therefore you chose a certain form of media that would follow O'Sullivan's because communicating with the landlord has a negative valence. I find it interesting that it doesn't stop here. Your landlords response to you or lack thereof will determine what happens next in your communication. If he responds via email, then you can continue CMC mode of communication, but if he does not, then you will be forced to you a more personalized, richer media. I like how your experience encompasses details that aren't really addressed in the theories of class so far.
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