I have never felt completely comfortable with chat rooms. The chaotic exchange of brief conversations and the rampant disregard to basic rules of grammar seem to create a hostile environment that is coldly impersonal and hotly unpredictable. Fortunately, a friend of mine runs a private chat room which is part of a large music community mainly for Indie (Independent) musicians, and he granted me temporary access to chat with some of the musicians.
For the chat room I chose an innocuous and gender-neutral handle “BC.” I was initially greeted and then promptly ignored, unsurprising since I am not an Indie musician and thus “outside of the crowd.” Fortunately one person, who chats under the name “Rank,” was friendly enough to initiate a private conversation with me, and we took off fairly well from there.
My first impression of Rank is an air of openness. His band is heavily influenced by punk rock and hardcore/metal bands, so it is unsurprising that he takes a very liberal view on many issues ranging from religion to politics. However, his spelling and grammar skills are far from stellar, and like many chat room users some of his sentences were at times incoherent. (e.g. “Rank: I shudnt say u know but i guess so, its yaeh...ok”) At first I visualized a fourteen year old punk rocker that enthusiastically supports legalizing marijuana and banning religion from the world. However, that first impression was quickly squashed after he told me that he is in fact married, has a newborn daughter, and has recently taken a light interest in his family’s religion, Judaism. In about one hour or so of text conversation, my view of Rank evolved from a stereotypical punk rocker to a mix of Freemason, father, chef, and pretty good bloke in general. Although I doubted his claims at first, he managed to show a good breath of knowledge when we discussed Masonic history and Judeo-Christian subjects, demonstrating that he is fairly knowledgeable and mature.
I believe that my experience is an excellent supportive example for the Hyperpersonal Model. The over-attrition aspect is quite evident as I formed a stereotypical view in my mind as soon as I stepped into the chat room – that is, Indie musicians tend to be liberal, hippy-esque, young, etc. The rather lack of elegance and eloquence in Rank’s sentences initially reinforced my belief that he is younger than I and gave an air of idealistic fervor found often in teenagers. Slowly, however, the developmental stage rolled in and as I received more “cues” or information about his personality/life, I was able to form a completely different view – a much more mature, fatherly, and independent image, albeit still fairly idealistic.
On my side, I did my best to give a positive presence. Rank treated me like a close friend soon after we engaged in conversation, telling me all about his family and career, and I felt I should return the warmth. I was thoroughly supportive of many of his views, and I tried my best to show interest. The behavioral confirmation, or feedback, was glowingly evident between us. I acted very friendly and supportive because he talked to me like to a close friend, and he in turn tried to spell better and converse in a more mature/focused manner after I showed interest in him being a Freemason and chef.
Overall I was rather impressed by the experience and I am glad that I have possibly made a good friend over the Internet in under an hour. Although I was glad that we never had the typical chat introduction in chat rooms (“a/s/l?”), I was slightly dismayed when Rank said “nice talking to u babe, u are an interesting girl but I’m taken haha” just before leaving the chat room. I did not in our conversation refer to my gender (male, in case the reader does not know). I did however compliment him by saying that his wife is lucky to have him, and I suppose my elementary grasp of the use of the chat room, coupled with my nearly OCD-like attention to spelling and syntax might have formed a feminine image in his mind. This misunderstanding is a good example of the inadequacy of CMC communication, and it also shows that over the Internet people may take various cues in completely different ways and form impressions that, while not unreasonable, are in fact totally inaccurate.
5 comments:
Hi Zeyu,
Very interesting post! It’s impressive that you got to know this person in such great depth. It also sounds like your experience conformed to the hyperpersonal model pretty well, as you pointed out. Your initial impression, based on a few syntax-related cues and his presence in an indie music chatroom, developed into a more accurate and nuanced picture. I think re-allocation of cognitive resources was at work here, since the attention usually reserved for facial expressions and gestures was redirected towards analyzing his brand of netspeak. I just wonder how confident you would be in an assessment of the 4 aspects of his personality besides openness, which you seem to have formed a fairly strong opinion about. Would the breadth of information about Rank’s personality suffer in this early stage of online interaction, as compared to a face-to-face meeting of equal length? Though this would be the hyperpersonal model’s stance, you were able to find out a lot about Rank during your short interaction so I wonder if that prediction would hold.
~Emily
Hey Zeyu,
I think you gave a great summary of your experience getting to know the Indie musician. I agree that your impression fit with the Hyperpersonal model. When you described how your initial impression proved intensely stereotypical and you learned more about "Rank" obtaining a probably more realistic view of him, it reminded me of Social Information Processing theory. It seems to fit since you were able to get a pretty good picture of his personality and identity but probably over a longer period of time than FtF communication would have required. Clearly "Rank" didn't have the same progression through SIP since by the end he thought you were a girl. This just shows how we can fool others through CMC without even trying!
(P.S. Great title! It's why I read yours)
Hey Zeyu,
Rank’s parting words to you are quite hilarious! And you are right, they do speak to one of the inherent failures of computer-mediated communication (CMC) since after talking with you for an hour, this guy could not decipher one of your most important traits, your gender, and had been forming impressions of you throughout your conversation with the notion that you were a girl. This may have changed his behavior towards you in the same way that females get more attention in Multi-User Dungeons. However, although this was an indie-related chat room, I think CMC also contributed to why the two of you were able to talk about such diverse topics, which you may not have touched upon in real life. If you had met Rank face to face, the conversation would have probably revolved around his music, and it would have been easier to stereotype him based on his appearance, especially if he was decked out in the true indie style. Removing those visual cues allowed you guys to branch out to discussing different facets of his life (religion, family, etc.). The fact that you were in a music-related chat room probably also steered the conversation away from strictly music, since in that sort of environment, most people are music lovers and need to differentiate themselves in some other way. Really interesting post and impression of Rank!
~Christina
Zeyu, I enjoyed reading about your take on chat rooms for niche interests (in this case, indie musicians). It's interesting how much information this gentleman revealed to a complete stranger (you) in an hour's time. I was also surprised at how accurate (and inaccurate) CMC can be in text-based environments--do you think the content of the conversation and your impression formation would have changed if you had voice or video chat elements added to your encounter? In addition, with your currently formed impression of this musician, do you think you would be able to "pick him out of a room full of people" in person, or would more time be necessary to approximate a face-to-face impression?
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