Jake was always the “coolest” kid in school. His nonchalant, light hearted, yet stylish demeanor mixed with his good looks, intelligence, and athletic talents made him the number one hit among the girls AND the guys for that matter! There was nothing not to like about Jake, in fact, if you didn’t like Jake then it was probably because of some insecurity of yours.
Jake and I got to know each other the year before I moved away. As my best friend’s boyfriend, I never got to know him especially well, but I still grew fond of him and we developed a friendship on something of a superficial level. After moving away, we never stayed in touch but I found him again, or he found me, on Facebook. I accepted his friend request, and aside from the initial “hello” we really haven’t talked much.
I thought that Jake would be an interesting subject for this assignment. Trying to assess if and how Jake has changed from our high school years is hard because he has provided very little self-reported information through things such as a bio or picture descriptions. On the other hand, the Brunswikian Lens Model would argue that you can indeed make such assessments through utilizing and analyzing environmental cues. Through looking at a series of four mechanisms found within online communities: self-directed identity claims, other-directed identity claims, interior behavioral reside, and exterior behavioral reside, I can make inferences about who Jake is today.
My analysis begins with Jake’s self-directed claims, which are, as explained by Walther et al., pieces of information provided by the profile creator for their benefit. These claims serve as “symbolic” representations indicating how the source wants targets to view him or her that reinforces their own self-views. In Jake’s Facebook profile this can be seen in the form of his of his favorite quote. Jake’s quote comes from a rap song that talks about personal strength, honesty, and loyalty. This quote is a reflection of Jake’s self perceived integrity, and judging from what I know about him I would say it suits him well, although it reminds me that Jake still associates himself with the gangster rap community, despite his good suburban boy nature. Other-directed claims are “symbols that have shared meanings to make statements to others about how they would like to be regarded”. Examples of this on Jake’s profile would include his activities and interests. Under Jake’s interests he lists “family, friends, and God… I don’t know where I would be without them.” This further shows that Jake wants be regarded by others as loyal and grounded two characteristics that I too would credit him for having. The next mechanisms talk about behavioral reside. Behavioral residue is evidence that reflects who one is both inside (interior behavioral residue) and outside (exterior behavioral reside) of the online space. Interior behavioral residue cues are present in the form of Jake’s wall posts on other people’s profiles. This simply demonstrates Jake’s involvement within the community. Those with whom he associates and the language he uses when associating with them offer higher level of cue validity in contrast to the other two mechanisms. Because Jake is not likely to consider how the rest of the community will view a particular post on a friend’s wall, his wall posts reflect the nature of his relationship with that person, thus adding more substance to my current impressions. The final mechanism, exterior behavioral reside, can be seen by looking at Jake’s pictures. From boating, to partying, and to going to sporting events, it’s clear to me that keeps himself busy outside of his Facebook activities and that he has not changed much over the years. This mechanism also offers more cue validity because it’s hard to fake what do and how you do it with a large amount of photographs. This increased cue validity leads to increased cue utilization and thus functional achievement in my forming an impression about who Jake is today. These last two mechanisms provide me with a clearer picture of Jake’s personality rather than the first two; therefore they weigh more heavily in my impression formation of him.
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4 comments:
I think you had a similar problem in your entry to what I did. You do a very good job explaining and setting up the entry, and I like the way you analyzed jake, but like me, in order to not make a ridiculously long entry, you had to cut each bit a little short, it would have been kind of nice to do a follow-up entry in which you did not have to introduce everything, just do a full analysis, using a couple of examples with each mechanism.
I think you had a great post for the limited amount of space you had. The fact that you analyzed someone you used to know was a different perspective than what I had expected most people would take. I think it is interesting that you see many of the same character traits Jake has expressed on Facebook to be similar to the Jake you knew then. I am curious to know, though, was there anything that didn't seem to fit in with what you used to know about him? Has he seemed to change in any way? If so, do you think this was more of a personality change or a change of self-presentation to the rest of his friends community? Overall, nice job fitting everything in as best you could.
I liked the approach you took to analyzing Jake. Thinking back over your fond memories with him and using those to see if he has changed was very interesting. Even though the amount of space you could use was limited, I feel that you were able to elaborate on the main topics. Do you think that he has used part of Walthers evaluation of "managed information" in his profile, or remained the good suburban boy that you once knew?
Hi Melissa,
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I liked how you were able to thoroughly analyze Jake’s Facebook profile by incorporating the Brunswikian Lens Model. You did a great job at briefly introducing each of the four mechanisms associated with the model. You gave a concise definition for each and even explained how they play a role in judging an individual’s personality. I also thought it was great how you incorporated the concept of cue validity and suggested how certain mechanisms are more difficult to manipulate, thus creating more validity for judgments. However, I would have liked to have seen more analysis of Jake’s profile. I know space was very limited (and you did a great job at being to-the-point and concise), but it would have been interesting to see how his “Facebook personality” compared to his real personality as you recall from high school. You do mention some comparison, but you do not explicitly state if his Facebook personality is completely aligned with his real personality. Also, more description of how you are able to relate the Brunswikian Lens Model to the Big Five Model (in terms of judging his personality).
Overall, your blog was great and definitely highlighted the relevance of the Brunswikian Lens Model to personality judgments!
Joshua Navarro
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