One of the best ways to meet someone online is entering a chat room due to its synchronous forum style that allows for a conversation in “real time”. Being extremely unfamiliar with the world of chat rooms (I’ve had no previous experience in them), I searched “chat room” on Google and clicked on the first one listed. I was brought to Para Chat, a website which simply advertised to join a free chat. The website prompted me to give a user name and then brought me into the Lobby Room, which was the main message board. My user name, Lucinda (a friend and I always use that name for things) was a bit reserved in contrast to others, ranging from incest_sex_male to a-wow-date, which were more directly to the point.
The Lobby Room itself was extremely overwhelming, as I’ve never seen so many disorganized postings rapidly rush out onto on a message board. I didn’t even have an opportunity to attempt to jump into one of the myriad conversations because moments after I entered the Lobby Room, three windows immediately popped up with people inviting me for personal chats. I declined speaking to Horny4u and Male_Alone because their user names alone made me a bit uneasy.
Andreww seemed harmless enough and I began talking to him. Right away he described how he looked and asked me to do the same. I was a bit taken aback that he immediately sought to find out my appearance before anything else, but as this was part of the experience, I told him some of my physical attributes. We chatted for a little and all of a sudden, he made a comment that made it very apparent as to which direction he wanted to take the conversation. When I didn’t respond to his liking, he realized this was not going to be his lucky night with cyber-sex and abruptly ended the conversation.
My impression of Andreww was formulated based on the hyperpersonal model. Within two minutes of chatting with him, I not only conjured up an image of what he looked like, but I felt like I could guess certain aspects of his personality. My image of Andreww was created due to Selective Self Presentation, as he kept on emphasizing certain physical characteristics. As we continued conversing, I realized that I used the Over-attribution Process, as I stereotyped him as a very confident, popular person due to his apparent extroverted personality and status as a jock. He had a very smooth segue into the more lewd part of the chat which implied that he had not only done this before, but created the assumption that he had a way with the ladies. Since he hastily ended the chat, my opinion of him wasn’t too positive, but perhaps if we continued talking, he might have dispelled some of my impressions about him.
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I agree that this was a hyperpersonal model that you experienced, since you were able to form such strong opinions of Andreww with such few cues. However, did you consider how open Andreww may have been since he was willing to "cyber" with you? I can't help but think that even though "cybering" is definitely something that most of us did not want to do, it is a strong cue about what others in these chats are saying about themselves. Andreww seemed to be sexually open and was expecting you to do the same. Also, would you consider his desire to cyber a bit of self-presentation? He was presenting himself as a very sexually desirable person, leading into his request to cyber; all pointing to his presentation of a sexual personality. Overall, it was enjoyable reading your post because I had similar experiences while completing the assingment.
Hello Hannah,
Just like you, I initially found myself to be completely overwhelmed upon entering a chatroom for the first time. I found myself getting very confused and lost while trying to keep up with the plethora of conversations occurring instantaneously. It was quite an interesting experience to say the least!
I was particularly interested by the fact that you attributed negative impressions to individuals you did not even communicate with—simply by reading and interpreting their nicknames. I found myself doing exactly the same thing. I feel that many of the people put thought (maybe not too much, but some) into contriving these nicknames. I interpreted these names to at least reflect the individuals’ personality and interests—which may or may not be correct. However, just like you, if the names seemed to suggest something even remotely sexually explicit or absurd, I immediately formulated a negative impression. Perhaps this relates to the CFO theory, simply because of the lack of details and cues about the individual.
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