For this assignment, I chose to analyze my experience with my roommate from freshman year. After getting my acceptance letter here, there were a few months between the times everybody who got in early decision and the time we could access Cornell Facebook. During this time, many early decision-ers were populating Myspace, and this is where I met my roommate.
She (we’ll call her Lauren) seemed like the sweetest girl when I first met her. Lauren was from upstate
Eventually, we started talking on the phone, and I met up with her in
My experience with my (thankfully) ex-roommate is not an uncommon one – I know plenty of people who ended up regretting rooming with someone they met online prior to school. The Hyperpersonal model fits best in analyzing my experience. I overattributed information I got via short conversations and connections on Myspace profiles to the type of person Lauren actually was. People lie constantly and mask their true personalities on the web, making it difficult, in retrospect, to make a good decision about whether or not a stranger is actually a kindred fit. While Lauren and I worked as roommates for about a month, in the long term, my overattribution to some of her (only) good qualities clouded my judgment, and allowed me to make a mistake in rooming with her.
Lesson learned here: be weary of a person’s true personality before rooming with them.
2 comments:
Nice post Rachel. I'm sorry that happened to you! It seems like your experience supported Ramirez & Wang's theory that meeting in FtF after a long term CMC relationship results in uncertainty-provoking and negative outcomes. You talked to your roommate for several months online but then the relationship deteriorated after you got to know her in person. It would be interesting to see if it has been studied how long it takes for this deterioration to occur after the modality switch. Some people seem to have these negative feelings after the initial FtF meeting while others, like you, are ok at first and then slowly become uncertain resulting in a negative outcome. Did Ramirez & Wang only intend for it to mean that after a long term CMC relationship that the initial FtF meeting would cause disappointment or that FtF over time would result in a negative outcome?
Rachel,
Your post was both interesting and a great example of how first impressions can be completely different from reality. I think especially when it comes to finding a roommate, it is very difficult to find out who people really are, because in the beginning, everyone puts on their nicest faces, and someone who is a complete jerk could seem like a total sweetheart in the first few months. I'm sorry that you had to experience that situation; at least it's over now!
Post a Comment