When people as me if I knew my roommate before coming to Cornell, I always feel a little bit creepy as I reply, "well, we met on facebook...". As a matter of fact, we didn't just discover that we were randomly assigned and THEN look each other up on Facebook, but we met first through a group, then decided since to request each other, even though we had never met face to face. Of course, we talked a lot via facebook and AIM, and eventually on the phone. However, because we live so far away (about 600 miles I think), we never actually met until move-in day. It ended up working out great, and I'm not just saying that because I think she might read this (she won't).
Perhaps because we knew we would eventually meet face to face, were were really open and honest in our early conversations, and both genuinely wanted to get to know each other, both before and after deciding to room together. In general, I think our experience fit most with URT, or Uncertainty Reduction Theory. We had a positive impression of each other when we met face to face because there was a good amount of uncertainty that had been dispelled by our CMC conversations. While we did fear that it would be awkward to finally met face to face, it really wasn't. I think that we were definitely able to become closer more quickly because we had already addressed a lot of key issues to our friendship and living situation before meeting on move-in day. We also avoided the unpleasant possibilities of randomly-assigned rooming, and we knew that as long as we knew ahead of time that we were rooming with another "normal" person who shared a lot of the same interests. I think now we have the ideal rooming situation because we're very close, but not attached at the hip. We've become really comfortable with each other, and I'm glad we found each other on Facebook, even if it does make us seem a bit like Facebook stalkers.
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Great post. I have actually never heard of anyone doing anything like this. You really put a lot of faith into SIP and that you were forming a very good impression of your roommate through CMC. It is hard to get to know someone knew and meeting them online can really help. Also, the fact that you felt you got along better with them than a random person that you were most likely to get assigned to live with says something about your experience. I am curious what kind of group you were both in to make you take notice to each other. Also, what exactly about the other person caused you two to start talking to each other. This was a great example of a relationship leaving virtuality.
Great post, I think you were smart for using CMC to find a person to room with and it’s nice that it all worked out. Like you I believe that the relationship that I developed online feel under the Uncertainty Reduction Theory, because self disclosure made our meeting less awkward or disappointing than it could have been.
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