To complete assignment #2, I entered my first ever chat room. I’ve always used AIM or email to contact my friends because I’ve never been entirely keen on the idea of chatting with strangers over the internet. In the first minute of entering a site called “ParaChat”, I found cyber bullying, people asking for mothers, people requesting sluts, and people asking for certain nationalities. Needless to say, I already knew it would be quite the new experience.
After observing these quick, short conversations, I took up a chat with a person with the username “backstreet_boy”. To be honest, the username only caught my eye because it made me laugh and think of middle school. While briefly talk with me, this person would regularly stop to heckle other users in the chat room (i.e. “what kind of username is ‘starpeh’? that sux its so stupid”). Although this user didn’t outright tell me whether he or she were male or female, the more I watched and conversed, the more I felt that backstreet_boy was indeed a male. He would continuously talk about sports and how he worked out a lot. When he asked me “age/sex/location”, I lied, and happily explained I was a 22 year old female who lived in
I soon left the chat, remembering only how cocky and rude backstreet_boy came off as. Perhaps this was because of the anonymity the internet chat room offered – no one knew who this person really was, and therefore, he could act as he pleased because the impressions other people formed of him didn’t matter in or apply to his real life. His tone of voice and facial expressions were also not observed, resulting in a huge loss of cues usually used by people to judge new acquaintances. Obviously, my first impression was definitely not positive. Perhaps this was because I didn’t have a lot of information to base my impression around, so consequently I over-exaggerated anything he had to say (explained by the “Over-attribution process” under the Hyperpersonal Model).
Although entering the chat room was an interesting experience, I don’t think I will make it a regular habit. It’s not surprising that I over-exaggerated the little he had to say, I’m sure that if being in a chat room was part of my everyday life I would constantly get the wrong impression of people. The internet opens hundreds of new doors to people, allowing anyone to express themselves as they please. Chat rooms are the prime example of how people take full advantage of the anonymity the internet offers. I would definitely need more time to converse with this person in order to acquire a solid impression (as the “Developmental Aspect” under the Hyperpersonal Model explains).
3 comments:
It’s hard to determine whether we perceive personalities online because we are now aware of the CFO and Hyperpersonal theories, or if we truly are getting a small dose of someone’s real personality. I suppose what I’m trying to express is that “backstreet_boy” really does sound like a jerk…theory or none. Do you think that his seemingly negative personality is based on some sort of insecurity or neuroticism? From your description of the situation he seemed extroverted, but how open was he? Was he willing to answer questions directly? I enjoyed your post, but I wish I knew more about which of the Five Traits “backstreet_boy” possessed. Without that information it is a bit difficult to form a full picture of why you chose the theory you did to describe this person.
To complete the assignment, I also ended up on “ParaChat” which didn’t provide the most enjoyable experience as I met someone who came off equally as much of a jerk as backstreet_boy. It sounds like you were talking to him as he was still posting on the main message board of the chat room. I’m curious as to who initiated the conversation and if it was in a private message. It would give more of an idea of why he would be going back-and-forth from talking to you to “heckling” the others on the main board. Furthermore, when he did chat on the main board, did that delay his response time to your conversation? If there was a lapse in response time, perhaps that added to your negative impression of him as it could have come across as being rude to not immediately answer. Knowing these factors would help me better understand your perception of backstreet_boy.
I had a similar experience when I entered a chatroom for this assignment. The male I was observed also seemed to be very cocky and arrogant. I found myself however exaggerating what he said. Thinking about the over attribution process made me think. Was the person I observed really like this, or was some of his comments out of humor. I could not decide. Because I was not able to see his facial expressions or gesters, I often could not decide if the person was being funny or serious. Maybe this is an issue you could think about also in your chat room interaction. Was backstreet boy being serious with you throughout the conversation, or were some things out of gest? Was your impression correct or were you over exaggerating? Did you misinterpret what backstreet boy was saying, or his he really the cocky arrogant person he portrayed himself to be?
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