A chat room is a very scary place. It took me several attempts before 1. I found a room where people were actually chatting. 2. I got people to talk to me. 3. Found people who would talk to me in non-inappropriate ways.
I first started my chat room experience by entering a number of different internet chat rooms trying to find one where people were actively interacting and having conversations. I started out by putting my username in for each of these chat rooms as “cubsfan2007,” not wanting to give away too much information about my age or sex. However, I found that this name did not engage many people into conversation, so I went for another approach. I settled on using the site free-chat-rooms.net. I quickly noticed that anyone entering the chat room with an obvious girl’s name would get an enormous number of responses from people, so I tried to go for that approach. Since my name is pretty rare and not many people would know it, I decided to use my roommate’s first name, Heidi. So having changed my username to “heidi,” I re-entered the chat room and once again said “hey everyone.” Unlike last time when I received no responses, I was immediately bombarded by 20 or 30 private chat requests. After shifting out the rather vulgar ones, I started chatting with a few people.
After a few rounds of accepting requests, I got into a conversation that I found interesting. In fact, as I write this, I am continuing my conversation with this person. In terms of the Big 5, I was very impressed by how well I got along with this person. I couldn’t really judge his levels of extroversion or neuroticism. They really are much more difficult to assess in CMC rather than in Face to Face. However, the person did seem very agreeable. We discussed sports, world issues, where we were from, what we did for a living, amongst other things. I should also mention that I was masking as a 22 year old, first year law student living in Chicago. His internet persona portrayed him as a genuinely nice guy. I found out he had been in Iraq for the past 13 months and he was going to start school soon. He was very open about his likes and dislikes and what had happened in his life. His being in Iraq and willingness to discuss things like global warming and the death penalty also gave the impression that he was very conscientious. I found myself starting to feel bad that I was so thoroughly deceiving him. Then I realized that the Hyperpersonal model had played its part and taken a hold of me.
After talking to this guy for about a half an hour, I felt a bond close enough that I felt bad lying to him. It was an extreme example of how the Hyperpersonal model, while not having as much breadth, is so much more intense. I was guilty of overattributing the few cues I had about “Aazrback” to create a much more real and whole person. The little that I knew about Joe, which is what he told me his name was, was so exaggerated I felt like I could infer so much more from it. It caught me off guard that I latched on to the Hyperpersonal model so wholly. It creeped me out a little how much I could be affected by it, but I guess that was what this assignment was supposed to show.
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4 comments:
Hi Nanditha,
Nice post! It sounds like your experience was very similar to mine, after which I also felt some regret. With little more than text to inform our impressions, we managed to construct individuals to whom we felt some responsibility to be honest and open. I’d be interested to know how much less intense your impressions of Joe would have been had you met in person. I also wonder how many more chat sessions it would take for you to form a characterization with enough breadth to rival a face-to-face interaction. As for the impression you made on Joe, it would be interesting to see if your true personality was significantly obscured by a few benign fabrications.
~Emily
What an interesting experience, Nanditha. Surprisingly, the username you choose (whether it’s a nickname or a favorite sports team) can have a unique affect on people’s perception of your personality – like you displayed. By choosing to alter your original username to one that is blatantly female, and by the responses you received and the speed at which you received them, it gives us an idea of what kinds of people use these chat rooms. This also adds to the complexity and confusion often associated with using this communication medium, because you can choose a name to connote something totally different that your actual self. I can also understand your use of the Hyperpersonal model in impression formulation of the person you were talking with because being in the armed forces has very strong connotations associated with it, i.e. an upstanding citizen, strong, nationalism, teamwork, etc; so, it is easy to form an exaggerated impression. Great post!
Hey Nanditha,
I really enjoyed reading your post. I’m not surprised that you found such a strong bond with a person that you had never met because he was so clearly intent on confiding in you. I think you made a great point in recognizing how you yourself was a victim of aspects of the Hyperpersonal model. It’s fascinating how close of a bond people can feel they’re forming through mere computer texting. I wonder if Joe would’ve been so open had you met him face to face – he probably wouldn’t have been. The internet really seems to make people more inclined to open up to complete strangers, and your experience supports that.
Rachel
Interesting post Nanditha.
I can understand how you might feel bad about misleading this person, especially considering the recent hardships he’s told you about, but did it ever occur to you that he might have been misleading you with stories to create the sympathy that you obviously feel? If his story is genuine then your feelings are appropriate, but if he is misleading you then the impression formation that you believe you are in control of, is in fact being controlled by him.
Now there’s no more reason to believe that he’s misleading you than there is to believe he’s being truthful, however in CMC the fact remains that it is possible to present oneself in whatever way we like. At the very least he is most likely practicing the selective self-presentation aspect of the Hyperpersonal model.
(P.S. – I don’t mean to sound overly skeptical of Joe’s story in particular, I only meant to bring up a general aspect of CMC that we cannot forget, especially in our first online encounter with another person.)
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