I chose to answer Option #1: I entered a psychological space on the Internet and identity switched (older/younger, male/female), described how I managed my impressions and examined how the space may have affected my presentation of a “self”. I considered the "self-presentational tactics".
Monday, September 10, 2007
Assignment 3: Masculine Figures Online
Assignment 3: 15-year-old Brianne
I used many self-presentational tactics when chatting with Clark125. As should be expected, one of the first things Clark asked me to do was describe myself. Of course he meant this in a physical way, so I stuck close to the truth though I remained vague. I told him I had light brown hair, brown eyes, and that I’m 5’3. Though I did not explicitly say so, I attempted to convey myself as somewhat naïve, as I was only supposed to be fifteen. I was more adventurous when it came time for attitude expressions. When we talked about music, I told him I really liked Justin Timberlake and Chris Brown. When the time came to talk about movies, I told him my favorites were High School Musical and Center Stage. Will the lies ever end? I was truthful when I said I love Harry Potter, but I also told him I was an avid reader of CosmoGirl. The last tactic that was put to good use was the description of my social associations. I told Clark that, as a high school sophomore, I was a newly appointed Varsity soccer player. I also “admitted” to having a crush on a senior football player, and that I was secretly praying that he would ask me to the homecoming dance. In my opinion, I had a pretty good shot of attracting his interest by then because we had study hall together. It is fair to say that I was Basking in Reflective Glory.
In a chat room, it is very easy to manage an impression when it comes to descriptions of myself and the things I like. However, it is much more difficult to manage non-verbal behavior as well as sets, props, and lighting. The only sets, props, and lighting I put into use involved descriptions of my fake neighborhood, which were very brief. I said it was small, quiet, and I only lived two blocks from my high school. I was able to achieve some non-verbal communication, such as the use of emoticons. I would follow smug comments with a :) and playful comments with a ;-). If Clark became smug or sarcastic, I would readily respond with a :P. I will choose to argue that my other non-verbal communication came from the abbreviations and other types of Internet “lingo” that I used. For instance, I was not shy when using “LOL” or “OMG.” Though these abbreviations do portray actual words, the fact that somebody would use them does suggest a youthful, technologically comfortable personality.
FOR THURSDAY:
Comment 1: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3186874989969223722&postID=5687063778743527603
Comment 2: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3186874989969223722&postID=4192321380145037695
Assignment 3- Me in a Man's Head
I entered the chat room and found that there had already been a lot of sexual comments made in the conversation, as I had expected. I watched the conversation for a minute before I took part in the chat with simply "hey everyone". The username I picked was a stereotypical male username; hockeyguy76. I mostly got responses from what I thought to be females. After a couple minutes I entered a private chat with one of these potential targets, cutechick11. We covered the basics first; name, sex, age. Then we went into more details like what she enjoyed doing and what her hobbies were. She seemed like she was maybe trying to be the typical girl who enjoyed shopping, getting her nails done, and hanging out with friends. This made me think that maybe she was also taking on an alternate persona, which in itself made me form an impression that she may be dishonest.
Using the self presentation model to present myself was difficult in this situation because I was not actually presenting myself, but a fake person. However, I still presented some of myself because I was trying to act out the impressions I have of an older man. When talking to cutechick11 I mostly used my "ought self" becuase I was trying to act how I thought I should be acting. According to what I told my target, I was 25 years old, a hockey player, very tall, lived in brooklyn, and was looking for a relationship. I told her that I graduated from an Ivy league university, was really athletic and that I was really active in my community. This is a form of me expressing my "ideal self" as these are two qualities that I have always strived to possess.
Assignment 3: Adventures of My Mind
Since I have used this program before and failed due to an uninteresting screen name, I decided to start this assignment off properly by using my NET ID as my screen name since its more professional looking. The only adjustment though was that I changed the numbers to 85, so if they asked I would say that the significance was the year I was born making me 21. For today my name is “jas 85” and I am a 21 year old from New York City. In reality, I live right out side New York City, but more people would be interested in a city image then in a place that no one really knows that much about.
Now with a new image in mind I am ready to start chatting, and within 5 minutes of entering the room and just saying hi, I had 2 private messages. The first message was a woman in her 40’s thinking that I was older because the first thing she asked was a/s/l. However, the next IM was from a different screen name, “Belly_Dancer.” My first thought was she is going to probably be a very cute girl who can dance, two qualities I like a girl to have. She started the conversation off by asking me how I was and what I had planned for today; now my mind had to shift to a 21 year old’s mind who lives in New York City. I told her I was probably going to run in Central Park, meet up with my friends for lunch and hopefully figure out what we were going to do tonight. After I said that she said that New York City was one of her favorite cities and that she wants to go back again sometime. After I found this out I showed off my city knowledge of the night clubs, restaurants, sporting events, shows, and anything else that went on in the city. It was very cool to show off to her since she said she was from a small town in North Carolina and was only able to see a couple of attractions in the Big Apple.
We continued to talk about other things besides NYC like our hobbies and activities we like to do. Suddenly I realized that during the last assignment I never asked for the woman’s name so this time I asked and she told me her name was Tina. Names can really create an image; I knew a Tina from High School who shared many of the same interests as this woman so I started to think of Tina from home and just by switching some characteristics around, I formed my new Southern Tina, an amazingly good looking girl who is very fun and athletic. After about 10-15 minutes of talking, I returned to reality because she told me that she would want to come visit me sometime since I was very sociable and cool. Now my image of Tina went from being a perfectly nice girl to being weird and too forward. I also felt a little nervous since I’m not 21 and I don’t live in the city but outside of it. Due to these uncomfortable feelings, I decided it was time to end the conversation and head off to “central park” or in realty go grab some lunch and finish my analysis of what different techniques I used in the conversation.
After reading over my discussion, I came to the conclusion that I had used both the "self-presentational tactics" and also the "multiple selves" theories that we had read and discussed in class. I used the ideal self, ought self, and actual self model while I was talking with her because I was trying to be someone else; however that person I was pretending to be was me just 3 years older and also doing things I wish I was able to do. I expressed at times qualities that I strived to have, qualities I felt I should have, as well as qualities that I had at the present time. Despite the multiple selves theories I also used the self-presentational tactics. During my conversation with Tina, I gave a hidden self-description (I didn’t tell her straight out but it came out through the questions she asked). I gave an attitude expression which described certain attributes that I possessed and listed some fake social associations, and used Sets, Props, and lighting to a certain degree as well. Throughout my conversation, I didn’t consciously plan to use any of these theories listed above, but after reviewing the conversation, I realized I used all of them pretty extensively.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Assgnmt 3: You gotta be a pretty fly guy to get attention from the ladies...
Using as many self presentation tactics as possible, I tried doing my best male impression to convince Sunshine (or Kathy, as I later found out) that I was the coolest guy ever. I failed miserably at first, by trying to sound cool and use the word ‘yo’ often, which she completely called me out on and made fun of me for. I immediately dropped using this phrase and instead focused on using social associations and attitude expression to develop my male persona. I tried thinking of how a guy would present himself in a chat session when trying to present his “ought self.” I tried to think of how boys normally act and their social norms and values. I figured the type of guy ‘hot_LAX_tiger” would be would be self promoting, cocky, and flirty. I tried to present my attitude accordingly by asking lots of questions to get a more physical description. Practically after everything she said I commented on how that made her so ‘hot’. As the conversation went on she “lol”-ed and giggled a lot more; in fact, once she found out I was a lacrosse player the emoticons and the number of exclamation points she used increased. I do not know if I became a better conversationalist after I admitted this fact, or if she became more interested in me, but after this point it was much easier to play the role of a male. After I associated myself with a sports team, I began basing my self description off of that. I told her I was 6’1 and buff
Pretending to be male in this type of space made it easier to deceive the receiver, because I did not need to worry about nonverbal behaviors and looking like a guy. Instead I had my screen name as a prop to prove I was a male, and was able to take advantage of the space and focus on “my male attributes.” I tried to engage in BIRK (“basking in reflective glory”) by talking about how athletic I am and how I go to Cornell. Unfortunately she was from Canada and never heard of Cornell, but I still tried my best to brag and express my macho, self-proud personality. Ordinarily, I try to be modest, so the whole situation was very strange for me. I also am a fan of using lots of emoticons myself, so it was strange to have to restrict myself from using them and overanalyzing the right way to phrase my responses. Overall, this experience taught me that when it comes to chat rooms and interactive chat rooms…it is much more fun to be a girl!
I posted comments on:
1. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3186874989969223722&postID=581857555076450706
2. http://comm245purple.blogspot.com/2007/09/assignment-3-who-uses-telephone-anymore.html
#3 -- Media Selection
For this assignment, I chose option 2. Although I had to choose some form of media for all of my social interactions this weekend, two stood out as more unique then usual: I needed to confront my housemate about not doing her share of the weekly chores, and I chose to lie to an acquaintance about not going to her dinner party. For the first situation, I chose face-to-face and calmly asked my housemate why she wasn’t keeping up her end of our four-person agreement. For the second situation I chose a mediated channel – text messaging – and claimed to be misinformed about the time and date of a dinner party (after the fact) since I felt uncomfortable attending. After considering my choice of media for each interaction, I realized that my patterns and reasoning fell in place with O’Sullivan’s model.
I chose to confront my housemate face-to-face because I wanted to be very clear about the issue at hand in order to ensure its resolution. This goes quite well with O’Sullivan’s idea of the clarity – ambiguity dialectic. I needed to choose a media that would allow me to be clear in my intentions, without angering my housemate or leaving room for misconceptions. Since the locus was on my housemate, I didn’t feel as inclined to choose a mediated channel. However, my choice in this matter may also reflect how well I know my housemate, the fact that I’m comfortable confronting her in such matters, and my desire to be amiable too. I believed a face-to-face interaction would give me more control over the confrontation and prevent any unnecessary controversy since we could engage in a completely synchronous discussion.
On the other hand, when I decided to lie to an acquaintance I chose text messaging which was probably related to personal self-presentational issues. I preferred a mediated channel because I didn’t necessarily want to be clear, or allow for cues that would suggest I was lying. I wanted to keep my white lie as simple and ambiguous as possible so as not to damage our relationship, or my self-presentation. In accordance with O’Sullivan’s model, I chose a mediated interaction when the locus was myself and the valence was negative. This may not have been the most efficient method of explaining my absence, but for something so minor, it certainly felt safer and easier.
In general, both of these media selections reflected ideas in O'Sullivan's model.
comments:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3186874989969223722&postID=5257425541769748811
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3186874989969223722&postID=5687063778743527603Assignment #3: Acting like a man is harder than I thought
The fact that I was in a chat room definitely affected how I formed my persona. I was able to use the self-presentation tactics of impression management to decide how to act like a male in the specific psychological space I was in, which was a chat room. For instance, my self-descriptions were different than if I had been writing a profile or an "about me". I had to be very short and concise..."20 year old male". I did not have the opportunity to describe myself more in depth and present my complete self. However, I was able to use attitude expressions to convey to the other people in the chat room what my personality was like. I talked about how I loved hip hop music. From this simple statement, the other people in the chat room could already make some judgments on what my attitude was like. I had a hard time using nonverbal behaviors in the chat room while I was trying to act like a man. I did not want to use smiley faces or a lot of punctuation, because that seemed feminine to me. I thought if I used more blunt phrases I would seem more like a male. The social associations tactic was probably the easiest to portray through the chat room. I told people that I went to Cornell University, so immediately they think that I am an intelligent and middle or upper class. I also said I was pre-med, which also made them think that I was smart and focused. I talked about some of the groups I am involved in on campus, like the Haitian Student Association. From this statement they could assume that I was a black 20 year old male. The hardest tactic to use in the chat room while managing my impression was sets, props, and lighting. In the chat room I chose not to send anyone pictures, or use any outside props, which limited how much I could use this tactic. The one set, prop, or lighting aspect that I could use was the font color. I changed my normally pink font, to a black one so I would seem more masculine.
At first it seemed very difficult to act like a male in a chat room. I was not sure exactly how to portray myself as a man. I had to ask myself how do men and women interact differently online. All of the things I thought were feminine I had to remove from my interactions. After a while it was easy to act like a man. It was almost like a role-playing game. The assignment overall made me much more aware of how easy it is for people to pretend to be some one else on the internet as long as they are aware of their impression management and how the psychological space can affect it.