Hello Brown Bloggers! When I first started working on the Blog assignment for this week, I thought it would be fun to talk to someone in a chat room. Within twenty seconds of entering a “Healthy Lifestyles” chat room, I had two random IM’s from people who were inside the chat room. I started talking to the two users, ShiftyBert and CleverJasper. The conversations, however, quickly turned from “Hey, how’s it going?” to more inappropriate topics (the screen names were initial warning signs). I signed off quickly and resorted to reading LiveJournal, a more comfortable medium where I could peruse pages of information on other people without being interrogated myself.
I was browsing the “Most Recent” journal entries, when I stumbled upon an entry titled “Here’s What Happened” by the user JULY_DAYS. When I clicked on User Info it read “The Diary of a Woman Who Survived a Psychopath.” Her most recent post describes the trials and heartache she experienced. “I have been ripped off, scammed out of money by a con/narcissist who claimed to "love" me…was targeted USED over and over again and until I fully realized what was really going on I was losing on a consistent basis every stable and enriching and important thing in my life. My finances, emotional, mental, and physical health have all gone down hill.”
As I read this woman’s heart-wrenching story, it struck me that the pain I feel for her is only caused due to the way she has presented herself. I take great pity on this woman and her son, but the truth is, I don’t know her. How different would the story be if her best friend was narrating it? Were there warning signs that she ignored that would have allowed her to avoid this mess altogether? The idea of selective self-presentation plays a large role in all Blogs, as people are going to write in a style in which they want to be viewed.
The author uses very strong language to describe her feelings and capitalizes certain words like misery, suffering, hope, etc. These make her point stand out even more, and she also uses capitalization to emphasize words in phrases such as I KNOW or I CERTAINLY.
I believe that this specific blog entry falls under the Hyperpersonal Model. Because I have no pictures or previous information about this woman I can only associate her with being used and broken. Another aspect of the Hyperpersonal Model that may fit here is behavioral feedback. Depending if people leave comments or let her know that they are reading her blog she may alter her style of writing. It would be interesting to see if her future posts change my opinions of her.
2 comments:
Nice analysis Gretchen.
I really liked how you stressed the importance of realizing that this user was employing the selective self-presentation. I believe that, especially in the blogosphere, people utilize this aspect of the Hyperpersonal model to the fullest. A blogger has as much time as they desire to draft and finalize their entries, whereas in instant messaging, although it is still easy to present oneself in a specific way, in order to do so one must think on his or her feet, which makes it a bit harder.
I also agree with your conclusion that the Hyperpersonal model is in play here. Since you have nothing else to go on, the impression you formed went only with what she has actually given you, you also may go as far as to consider this person a victim of some wrongdoing.
Hi Gretchen,
I agree that your experience fits the hyperpersonal model because you are basing your assumptions and impression of her on only the information you are given by her. Her blog post seems to dwell mostly on the bad things that happened to her and on her emotions. However, I don't think it is her intention to receive objective feedback. She just seems to be venting, almost.
I think it would be interesting if you went further in analyzing her style of writing. Were there any clues as to whom she was writing this to? Was this a "I hate you, world!" kind of response, or a more hopeful one? If she was either extreme, it would further establish the hyperpersonal model.
Your analysis was pretty thorough and well-thought out. Your consciousness of how the theory played in your reaction to reading the post is quite evident in your analysis.
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