Unsure of how to enter a chatroom or which chat to enter, I googled "web based chatting" and chose Yahoo's web based chat service. I was presented with a slue of different chat room topics. Since I planned to pose as a 44 year old mother (my inverse both age-wise and gender-wise), I thought it would be interesting to join the "College Chat."Upon entering the room, I was disoriented by overwhelming amounts of text appearing and disappearing on the screen. Eventually someone asked a/s/l. I answered with an abnormal 44/f/ny. When I got some attention from a few people, this was my cue. I private messaged those that commented on my apparent age. All of the chatters seemed to believe me, but the only person who responded to my private message was “kev,” who claimed to be a 20 year old male (See the conversation excerpt above, where the green spaces indicate a lapse in the conversation.)
Trying to think about how my mother might type if she were barely computer-literate enough to enter a chat room, I assumed a well punctuated and capitalized format. This capitalization scheme, which would fall under the environmental self-presentation tactic (set/props/lighting), was furthered by the contrast of cases and content of our nicknames. His alias "kev" was all lowercase, and my alias "AntieAnnie" was properly capitalized and bolstered my a/s/l response, thus setting my tone as a middle-aged woman.
My chat would qualify as identity-based deception because I displayed a character other than my true self. kev’s curt responses support Wallace’s statement on p24 that age and gender are “so fundamental to the initial impression.” Before even conversing with me, kev clearly did not plan to have a meaningful conversation with who he called an “old bag.” I think that kev’s honesty about his virginity can be attributed to the age and gender I expressed. If my a/s/l were 17/f/ny, he may have hid this "confession" or even lied about his virginity. In the chat room I entered, I did not need to display ANY assessment signals (information such as a Cornell email address that might give clues to my real-world identity behind the nickname). kev’s impression of me was purely riding on conventional signals from my self-descriptive messages and nickname.
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3 comments:
Alon,
I like the way you thought about how to accurately portray your character... my mom definitely writes in complete sentences and uses capitalization in the same way. Also, it was interesting to me that you chose to go to "college chat" without worrying about whether or not your cover would be blown-- after all, who would WANT to be a 44-year-old mother instead of a college student? :) One thing I'd also like to bring up, though, is the possiblity that "kev" was either A. being sarcastic about his virginity or B. lying as a result of the enviornment, or simply to see how you reacted. As I was reading your post, it did seem to me like kev was being sarcastic, but it is also possible that he felt free to be honest when conversing with a mother-like figure.
Hey Alon!
Great post, it seems like you had an entertaining time with Option 2. I know I did, too.
Actually, before I decided to stick with my younger character, I first used an older identity, under the name "CowgirlKelli" and entered a variety of rooms, including 40+ rooms, romance rooms, and general activities rooms. Like you, I used proper grammar and observed more formal use of language. And like you, I got a lot of negative vibes in virtually every room that I joined. I wonder if by obeying the rules of proper grammar I in some way alienated myself from the other chatters. In general, younger chatters seemed hostile to my motherly mannerisms.
Chrissy,
I loved your post! I found the way "kev" treated and communicated with "AntieAnnie" very revealing about our society, especially our society online. I can almost guarantee that if "Aunti Annie" had been "SexyKitten", a 20 year old female (for example), the conversation would have been entirely different. We seem to trust that whoever we are talking to online is telling the truth about their identity. Of course, certain characteristics such as the way you type and your screen name can further confirm your identity. I also agree with you when u state that he would not have revealed his "confession" had "AntieAnnie" been someone different. We treat people so much differently based on their sex and age, is this fair? Someone such as "AntieAnnie" could simply have entered the chat site to learn more about the environment in which her daughter, a Brown student, is exposed to. In doing so, "AntieAnnie" is disrespected and called a "bag".
You portrayed yourself perfectly in this experiment in order to gain the most accurate results. It is disappointing to see the disrespect that people show others online because of their anonymity, and the trust in which we put in others online based on how they portray themselves.
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