One of my friends (lets call him “G”) had a very unusual relationship that started online and left virtuality. G spent countless hours playing Maplestory. Because he was a higher level, he encountered many other players, who would ask him how to get better skills/items. He was annoyed by the amount of people who bothered him and with novice questions. It was uncommon for G to come across another player with similar items and skills. However when he finally did come across a player on the same level he was, there was a strong attraction between the two players.
First, they strictly talked about their lives inside the game. Eventually, they began talking about real-life interests/hobbies. They were both interested in similar sports, television shows, and video games. They also found out that they were about the same age and lived in the same city. After two months of online interaction, they finally decided to meet each other in real life. They did not want the meeting to be too awkward, so they decided to meet each other in a group setting. G invited her to go to the park with his other friends.
G still remembered just how awkward their first face-to-face encounter was; he thought that she was another person. She barely said a sentence that whole day. G was very disappointed that she did not turn out the way he expected, and he was afraid that the meeting would destroy their online relationship. Later that day on Maplestory, she told him how much she enjoyed being with him. It turns out that she is an extremely shy individual. He did not realize this before because she was talking to him non-stop when they were online. G was relieved to learn this, and their relationship strengthened even more: they are both currently dating each other both in real life and in Maplestory.
This instance of leaving virtuality does not fit any of the theories discussed in class perfectly. First of all, this does not fit the Social Information Processing theory because this theory suggests that over time people interacting online will eventually get to know each other just as well as people interacting face-to-face. After interacting with each other for two months, G still did not realize a large part of her personality—her shyness. This suggests there are certain cues that are not apparent online, and virtual cues can not replace certain real-life cues, even with time. The Uncertainty Reduction Theory does not apply either because G had a very negative outcome for leaving virtuality. He described her as another person. He did not feel attracted to reducing the uncertainty with her; instead, he was ready to give up on their relationship after their meeting. The SIDE theory most closely describes the relationship between these people. It can be argued that shyness is an individuating characteristic that is hidden in CMC. When they finally met, this characteristic was revealed, which led to a negative impression for G.
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/11/11-meeting-computer-genius.html
1 comment:
Hey Ellis, great post! I find it really interesting that after having an awkward first face to face encounter, they resorted back to CMC, which allowed them to explain much more about each other and made things clearer for the other person. Once people meet face to face we'd assume that they can only move forward from there. But here, they retreated back to online interactions because they felt more comfortable that way. I suppose it still goes back to the concepts of valence and locus when choosing a particular communication medium.This is one situation where almost any of the theories we've learned can apply.
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