Assignment 8 -- Reflections on Spermazoids

Kayla Thomas: Purple
Jason Feldman: Red

We analyzed a Google group in a forum for loneliness. What began as a simple board, where lonely individuals would offer advice to other lonely individuals, quickly became a philosophical discussion of existentialism and clarification on misconceptions of ‘dark matter.’ Our results were not consistent with Braithwaite’s findings. We assert that the reason for this inconsistency is largely due to the fact that the messages we analyzed were responses to an abstract mental and social problem rather than responses regarding an actual physical disability.

We focused on two main threads within one group forum. The first thread centered on anonymous group members responding to another member’s specific problem. This problem involved losing a summons for jury duty and corresponding doctor excuse slip. The writer also self disclosed intimate details about the death of her partner, and her emotional response to this situation. This thread contained 5 of our messages. The second thread was entitled ‘Darwinism.’ Quite interestingly, the posts had absolutely nothing to do with the principles of Darwinism. The topic was considering one’s purpose and impact on the universe (with special attention paid to ‘dark matter’, ‘spermazoids’, and conceptions of god). This group included the rest of our 15 posts.

Neither of these threads, especially the second one (which was the subject of the majority of our analysis), required the type of emotional support necessary in a group such as the one Braithwaite studied. Whereas the messages in Braithwaite were chalk full of empathy, understanding and encouragement, the posts in the first thread were primarily concerned with offering advice or referral. This advice typically was very practical in nature, and involved explaining the various ways this person could resolve the issues that were troubling her. The second thread also contained information support, but more along the lines of situation appraisal and member teaching based on individual perspectives. We also had substantially more posts that contained esteem support. This can be explained by the fact that topics in the second thread were often centered on validating ones self-worth and purpose.

Due to the fact that we analyzed only a limited number of messages, we did not find messages that contained either tangible or network support. This is not necessarily inconsistent with Braithwaite because the percentages of these two message categories were relatively small, and thus his results can be explained by his larger sample size. We also found a substantial amount of humor. However, these results could be more reflective of our own interpretations of posts rather than any comic intent by the authors.

Our results are consistent with Wallace’s theory about the effect of numbers in an online environment. Wallace’s theory asserts that greater numbers of people are less likely to help or offer support in face to face settings, but with decreased social presence online, individuals feel more inclined to help. Wallace suggests that the reason for this is that in the absence of visual cues associated with a face-to-face environment, we do not base our reactions on the reactions of others. Furthermore, individuals may feel more responsible and obligated to help because increased social distance creates a more one-on-one feeling. Members of a group may not be as aware of other capable members – so they more readily offer help. We noticed that both threads contained advice or information that was repetitive, implying that many group members felt obligated to offer support, reply to posts, give advice, etc.

Messages 1-5

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.loneliness/browse_thread/thread/6ce92f8e2b6bf8fe/b46735d8ee8d9b74#b46735d8ee8d9b74

Messages 6-20

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.loneliness/browse_thread/thread/df98c41bb2a089cc/6bc829c7354c7497#6bc829c7354c7497

#8- I'm the "Other Woman"

In this study we focused on a thread relating to polyamory. This thread starts off with the writer, Danette, discussing her current situation and seeking out support and advice. She begins by telling readers about how she is the "other woman" in a somewhat traditional affair which has been going on for over two years now. Danette’s lover is not legally married, but has been living with another woman for a decade. Danette has begun to accept this fact, but has feelings of jealousy and seeks advice and “words of wisdom”.

After reading all 20 messages and coding each message with 1 (if quality is present) and 0 (if quality is not present) on the topics of information, tangible assistance, esteem support, network support, emotional support and humor, we found an inter-rater reliability figure of 76.667%. This credibility of this figure affirms Braithwaite’s findings, in which he also says that an inter-rater reliability figure of above 70% is trustworthy. The coding was done independently by 3 coders and through the study we were able to capture the interactive quality of social support in this online group.

The first category, informational support is inclusive of advice, referrals to experts, situational appraisal, and teaching. Tangible assistance encompasses loans, performance of a directed and indirected task, active participation, and expressing willingness. Esteem support includes compliments, validation or relief of blame. Network support is encompassing of access and presence of companions. Finally emotional support is anything that ranges from relationship, physical affection, confidentiality, sympathy, understanding or empathy, encouragement, and prayer perhaps.

If we analyze the statistics of each of these categories we find the following:

			frequency	% of msgs
Information			20	1
Tangible assistance			0	0
Esteem support			8	0.4
Network support			0	0
Emotional support			12	0.6
Humor			2	0.1

As affirmed in Baithwaite’s findings, and seen through our study, we say that emotional support and esteem support were most wide-spread in support threads. Our finding for esteem (8) was significantly lower than that of the study on disability (18.6). This may be due to the fact that polyamory is not widely accepted and esteem support may not be offered as readily. Also, in contrast with disability, polyamory is a lifestyle choice, so people are somewhat responsible for their current situation, potentially decreasing sympathy. This may also be the reason network support was not offered: support groups are often used for people in a situation they could not help; it’s harder to refer someone to an expert on affairs than it is a disability support group. In addition, this online group is already a part of a network of online users and another network may not seem necessary or present in the case of polyamory. Tangible assistance was not present as well. This is probably because as Braithwaite discussed, in a computer mediated environment, it is harder to provide tangible assistance than in a face to face environment. Furthermore, information is an obvious characteristic of all support groups since many people enjoy giving advice when they are offered the opportunity.

Our study also confirmed Walther's theory about online support. Walther countered Wallace's assumption that the increased number of people present in the online community would decrease the help received since there would be a diffusion of responsibility as well as a decrease in "noticeability." Online, Walther found that there would be an increased response to support due to factors other than numbers, such as social distance and anonymity. Social distance leads to a greater availability of expertise since the online network is so large. In this case, Danette was able to seek out advice from other poly's all around the globe and was not confined to her physical location. Many of the respondents to her post made statements such as "good to know I'm not the only one" and "welcome to the club." These are not likely statements she would hear from others in her immediate area. In addition, the anonymity factor may as a whole allow all the members to participate in this support group because they are not really known by the other members even if their information is out there for them to be contacted, i.e. e-mail address and name. Thus, members were able to give information and advice from confiding about past or current experiences without worrying about judgment which would surely be present in a face to face situation. Thus, our own findings validated those of Braithwaite's and supported Walther's theory.

The link to this thread is: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.polyamory/browse_frm/thread/c01cecbfbbaaf5/50bd741840d7c8c1?tvc=1&q=cheating+relationship#50bd741840d7c8c1

My partners were Christina Reda (brown blog) and Heena Kamdar (yellow blog).

#8: Help! I'm raising a child!

For our assignment, Alice and I decided to examine posts that dealt with raising children. The first group we examined was misc.kids, where we found two threads to evaluate. The first thread we evaluated was originally posted by Sue, a mother trying to find ways to get her ten-year-old daughter to sleep in her own room. Sue was frustrated in constantly having to assuage her daughter’s fears. The second thread in misc.kids that we evaluated was by “funmum,” a mother who was bored of entertaining her two-and-a-half-year-old with the same activities every day; thus, she asked for advice as to new activities they could engage in. The last thread was in the group alt.support.step-parents. Phil, a father to thirty-month-old twins and a stepfather to a nine-and-a-half year old, was having issues with his wife as to how much of a role he should have in disciplining his stepdaughter, with whom he had lived since she was three years old. Phil wanted to know other people’s experiences in disciplining their stepchildren.

In evaluating the posts, we got these results:

% inter-rater reliability			0.9333333
			frequency	% of msgs
Information			20	1
Tangible assistance			0	0
Esteem support			4	0.2
Network support			1	0.05
Emotional support			2	0.1
Humor			5	0.25

Unlike Braithwaite, the highest number of support messages we saw were informational support messages; they consisted of 100% of the posts. The other types of messages were much lower than in frequency than that of the informational support messages. Humor came in second in terms of frequency with 25% of the posts, and esteem support came in third with 20% of the posts. Emotional support, network support, and tangible assistance were not very prevalent in our study, appearing in 10%, 5%, and 0% of posts, respectively.

One reason that informational support messages dominated the threads may have been because of the online environment. According to Braithwaite, “information support…is most useful and prominent when the recipient can control the situation and put the information to use.” The original posters were all parents who could easily make use of the advice that other posters gave them. Indeed, the original posts were all focused on getting information and advice rather than any other support.

Even though emotional support was highly prevalent in Braithwaite’s study, we did not find many instances of it. Braithwaite asserts that “emotional support is more likely to be given when the recipient is experiencing distressful circumstances that are not subject to his or her control. This type of support can promote comfort and healing in such circumstances.” Contrary to Braithwaite’s observations of Support Network, Alice and I studied an environment where parents did have control over their situations; thus the need for emotional support was lessened. Indeed, parents did not seek “comfort” or “healing”; they were simply searching for possible solutions to their problems. Their posts concentrated on getting the information that they wanted rather than fulfilling emotional needs.

Esteem support was third in terms of message frequency, which matched Braithwaite’s analysis. Posters sometimes validated the original poster’s experiences. For instance, with Sue’s post about her daughter refusing to sleep alone, one poster identified with Sue’s frustration by saying, “I can see how you [Sue] would be over it!” With esteem support, posters aimed to lift the original posters’ spirits by validating their feelings and experiences.

Our findings for messages related to network support and tangible assistance were similar to those of Braithwaite. As Braithwaite mentioned, the low number of network support messages may be attributed to the fact that “members met their needs for network support simply by participating” in social networks in the first place. Because they are already engaged in a support network, they do not feel an urgent need to expand their networks. Tangible assistance was unseen in our study. Braithwaite attributes the lack of tangible assistance to the “lack of physical proximity of the participants to one another.” Because participants may be on opposite ends of the globe, tangible assistance is difficult to offer unless participants are willing to make the effort to meet each other.

Humor ended up being the second most frequent type of message that we found in our evaluations. Braithwaite notes that humor can be used “in self-depreciating ways, in sarcastic ways, and as a way to diffuse tension and decrease discomfort in early stages of relationships.” Self-depreciating and sarcastic humor were certainly evident in the posts that we examined. As a response to Phil’s concerns about how much influence he should have in disciplining his stepdaughter, one poster described her experience in raising her own stepdaughter. In mentioning how she and her husband were stricter than her stepdaughter’s biological mother, the poster said, “Somehow SD [her stepdaughter] has survived the trauma of being raised by us!” By employing humor, posters were able to build bonds with the original poster.

The four dimensions of attraction to online social support, established by Walther and Boyd, tie in neatly with our analysis of the parenting support threads. The social distance factor means that the parents feel more inclined to ask for advice in these threads because they feel there must be someone with expertise in the vast number of people connected to these threads. At least one of them will have a solution to whatever problem presented. Indeed, parents were eager to find solutions to the original poster’s problems.

Furthermore, anonymity, both perceived and real, promotes participation from both people with questions and people with solutions to come forth. People with questions do not feel embarrassed to ask their questions because they are not likely to be judged by people that they actually know in real life. People supplying answers feel more secure knowing that even if their answers are wrong, there is virtually no way they have to own up to the responsibility.

Even though a lot of the messages are not carefully crafted to create specific impressions (many messages have typos in them), interaction management is still an important factor. The messages can be read at one’s leisure, and parents don’t feel obligated to stick around and answer other people’s questions. In fact, a lot of the threads have a hit-and-run feeling to them; posts are often short and concise. Furthermore, anyone with a question can start a thread to get solutions, and that person may then return to dormancy (“lurking”) after he or she gets enough information.

Walther and Boyd’s final factor is access. For parents, it is important and comforting to know that no matter what time of the day they post their question, someone is likely to see it and answer it—someone is always awake on the Internet. Posts were usually answered in a timely manner; some responses to the original post came in as quickly as a few minutes.

Members of group: Alice Choo (green blog) and Yang Zhang (purple blog). Blog cross-posted to both both green and purple blogs.

Threads:

Sue’s post

http://groups.google.com/group/misc.kids/browse_thread/thread/32665b5d88ffcc27/1551ef44eff22687#1551ef44eff22687

Funmum’s post

http://groups.google.com/group/misc.kids/browse_thread/thread/98630506c3319f13/46ef6101a323094a#46ef6101a323094a

Phil’s post

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.step-parents/browse_thread/thread/4dfff213af102230/a894452e07116c68?hl=en&lnk=st&q=child+raising#a894452e07116c68

7:2 An old friend from high school…

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.

Assignment #7

I am a member of Cornell’s MineSweeper (CMS) Team, part of the Frame and Drivetrain sub-teams. Our goal is to design and fabricate a completely autonomous, all-terrain robot capable of landmine detection in a humanitarian effort. The team was started only last year and as you may imagine, there is a LOT of work involved. CMS relies heavily on Haythornwaite’s notion of community verses society, in that CMS must have attributes of a community in order to be effective.

From a Social Networks Analysis perspective, Haythornwaite describes a community as having strong interpersonal ties, a shared focus, and a common language. Specifically, a community must have common ground, reciprocity, and strong/weak ties in a social network. CMS certainly has these attributes.

First, common ground, this is where the ‘actors’ share a common purpose and work together to achieve this end. Being part of a project team, all the actors share a common enthusiasm for automotive design and fabrication. The majority of the team consists of mechanical engineers, and each can tell you that a rocker-bogey suspension is passive and each will say MAE 427 sucks. We all share a common interest in mechanical/automotive design and on top of that, we all are taking similar classes. In this way, strong ties are developed within the group by staying up to ungodly hours working on project team and then finishing up those problem sets for class.

All the major project team’s labs are in the basement of Upson, CMS works alongside teams like FSAE, Baja, CUAUV, CUair, etc. This leads to inter-community interactions. I’ve made friends with FSAE team members just by being in the lab, this in turn forms weak ties that I could utilize if I need spare parts or tools they may have.

CMS thrives on reciprocity, the notion that members of a community will give help without any expectation of receiving it back. CMS is a young team compared to some of the more established teams leading to inexperience within the younger class (freshmen, sophomore) while the current seniors already have previous project team experience. So as a senior, I find myself spending extra time teaching the freshmen how to use tools and helping them get acquainted with the machine shop. Even though I do expect some work accomplished from the frosh now that I taught them how to use ANSYS, for example, I could have ‘thrown them to the wolves’ so-to-speak, but instead spent face-to-face time helping.

In terms of CMC synergies, CMS would not survive without it. CMS uses google documents to update part order lists, email for communication, a private forum for design discussion, FTP for CAD file storage/sharing, and obviously FTF communication. Most FTF interactions within the team will undoubtedly involve phrases like ‘remember that email I sent’ or ‘check the CMS folder for the Solidworks part;’ CMC strongly facilitates our tasks.

Assignment 7, Option 2 (Meet my cute friend)

I used to think that a person’s online profile (in a proper, established setting) is pretty much an accurate reflection of their true selves, save for some exaggeration or jokes. Obviously that’s not correct. So I decided to analyze the Facebook profile of a friend that I made on my very first day at Cornell. After a couple years and numerous interactions, I believed that I understood her personality quite well.

My assessment incorporated the Brunswikian Lens Model, which studies how an audience observes traits and conditions of a subject, and then use different cues to make consequent inferences. The lens are the environment cues that allow the observers to make their inferences about characteristics. According to the model, there are four mechanisms that link individuals to their environments; identity claims and behavoral residue. Finally, I attempted to analyze my friend’s personality according to the Five Factor Model.

The first mechanism is self-directed identity claims, which are “symbolic statements made by occupants for their own benefit, intended to reinforce their self-views”. My friend is very religious so she has an application that provides a daily bible verse. She also included her favorite verses from the bible in her “Quotes” section. On the other hand, she has a playful personality, shown by her relationship status, where she’s “engaged” to a friend (which is definitely a joke since I know she’s currently in a committed relationship).

A second mechanism is other-directed identity claims, which are “symbols that have shared meanings to make statements to others about how they would like to be regarded”. This would include all the information within her personal profile, especially her interests, activities and favorite things. I learned that my friend is honest to a degree about her interests but she adds a humorous twist to her answers, which I expected given her funny side.

The third mechanism is interior behavioral residue, which are “physical traces of activities conducted in the immediate environment”. Despite being very busy with classes and numerous other activities, my friend still has the time to be actively involved in Facebook also. Newsfeed was quite helpful in tracking down her actions, since she’s the type to reply to every wall post, comment on others’ photos and notes. Not to mention she added nearly every new Facebook application so now there are dozen of ways for people to interact with her.

The final mechanism is exterior behavioural residue, which are behaviours that the individual performs outside of the immediate environment. In this case, since she is so busy and involved, her picture albums depict her active life. Also, she is frequently tagged by others in settings outside of CMC, showing her interactions and relationships outside of this particular environment.

Although my friend’s Facebook profile was helpful for one to learn about her personality, when I tried to analyze her according to the Five Factor Model, the profile fell short. Her hundreds of friends and many applications on her page prove evidence to her openness, extraversion and to a degree, agreeableness. However, it is quite difficult to tell her level of neuroticism and contentiousness. Based on this profile, one can assume that she has none. Nonetheless, her page is a fun one for her friends to visit, and offer a relatively true depiction of her personality.

Comment 1
Comment 2

7 option2

I decided to use the Brunswikian Lens Model to assess the personality of K’s through the Facebook profile.

Brunswik’s lens model describes one process by which individuals make inferences about the characteristics of others. Observers judge individuals’ personality by their behaviors and generate artifacts. This model discusses the utility of various cues in terms of cue validity, cue utilization, and functional achievement. Cue validity indicates the accuracy of a cue in describing a person. Cue utilization refers to the process of an observer using a cue for impression formation. Functional achievement is the link between the two when cue validity and cue utilization both happen. And when functional achievement occurs, an observer should make an accurate judgment about a target.

In their study of personality judgments, Gosling’ group proposed four mechanisms that linked individuals to the environments that they inhabit: self-directed identity claims, other-directed identity claims, interior behavioral residue, and exterior behavioral residue.

First, self-directed identity claims are statements by the target that benefit the target and reinforce self-view. I consider the groups she joined in on facebook are self-directed identity claims, since few casual observers would notice this part, and K joined the groups pretty much depending on her own interest. The group of “Sichuan people” can tell us that she originally came from or has attachments to that place, though her profile says her home is in NJ. Second, other-directed identity claims are statements by the target to reinforce desired view by others. I think the rest of the identity claims like her profile picture, tagged photos and friends list were mostly directed to others. Take tagged photos for example: she has 124 pictures tagged and taken by herself but only 2 tagged by others. It’s hard to believe that nobody other than her took photos of her. Her choice of pictures is obviously for presenting herself to others and she looks prettier in these photos rather than those tagged by others. Third, interior behavioral residue is a reflection of past behaviors or possible future behavior within the immediate environment. K’s minifeeds and wall post can be the typical examples for this residue. From the minifeed I can tell that she’s been really active on Facebook recently: she had 4 minifeeds on average for each day in the past week. Fourth, exterior behavioral residue is a reflection of past behaviors or possible future behavior outside the immediate environment. Her photos taken on her vocation to NYC during fall break can be a good example.

Rating K on the big five personality traits ( neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and contentiousness ): Lots of her wall post started with things like ”I am good, thanks for asking…” or “Thanks for your b-day wishes…”, I can see that she is always the one who starts a conversation, or who really likes to keep in touch with friends. Also, she usually makes quick and warm responses to her wall post. I highly rated her extraversion (energy and tendency to seek the company of others), agreeableness and conscientiousness (energy and tendency to seek the company of others). Her profile includes lots of information about herself. Even for the category of “my favorite music”, she filled in more than 20 singers. Her willingness of sharing her information showed her highly openness.
Based on what I know about K, I think the assessment is basically accurate. She is an open, friendly and warm person in life.