Assignment # 11: Next time I won't have such high expectations!

The summer after my sophomore year of high school, I spent six weeks traveling cross-country on a teen tour with 40 other teenagers my age. Before embarking on the trip, I conversed with another teen, Jared, who was signed up for the same program dates. We spoke a few times online using instant messenger and eventually met face to face on the first day of the tour. Initially, I was only able to form an impression of Jared from our communication through CMC. The shift to then meeting him face-to-face, is an example of modality switching, which had an impact on our relationship. My experience can be characterized by the Expectancy Violation Theory which says that a violation of expectations (behavior that deviates from currently held expectations) triggers a chain of events directed at explaining its occurrence (Ramirez and Wang). I experienced violations of expectations of the social information that was initially processed. Specifically, I envisioned him to be physically attractive and assumed that he would be outgoing and friendly. Instead, I found him to be relatively shy and less attractive than expected. As a result, our relationship was dampened when we met face-to-face.

I think that these examples of violated expectations can be explained by the hyperpersonal model. One component of the hyperpersonal model is over attribution of similarity and common norms. Since my online interaction with Jared was rather brief, I think that I may have formed an over idealized impression of him. Since he was friendly and seemed confident online, I assumed that he would be very friendly and physically attractive based on our interaction through CMC. I also attributed our common interests to mean that we were far more similar to each other than in reality. Another component of the hyperpersonal model that also seems to help explain these inconsistencies in expectations is selective self presentation. Perhaps because CMC lacks many non-verbal cues, Jared was able to control our interaction and present himself in a positive manner. He probably also had more confidence in himself which explains my expectation of him being very physically attractive.

My experience with modality switching seems to be consistent with some of the findings of the Ramirez and Wang paper. They hypothesized and proved that MS, relative to interacting through only CMC, will provide social information perceived as less expected. My encounters with expectancy violations of partner behavior and physical attractiveness support these results. Another finding was that with MS, social information would be perceived as more relationally important. In my relationship with Jared, I felt that social information was more important upon meeting him relative to when I had simply talked to him online. Our interactions in person led me to place much more emphasis on social information and had an impact on our relationship throughout the six weeks we traveled together. These results show how relationships can be affected by experiencing modality switching from online communication to face-to-face interaction.