Sleuthing isn’t really fun unless it’s difficult. No one reads Sherlock Holmes hoping that the robber gets caught leaving fingerprints behind or dropping his wallet on the way out, and no one plays the Carmen Sandiego computer game to stay in one city and catch her immediately. (It could be argued that no one but me plays that game at all.) So, please believe me when I tell you I tried to find examples of the four Brunswikian Lens dimensions in mass e-mails not because that’s what I wrote about last time and I’m too lazy to think of anything else, but because I knew it would be challenging. With that caveat, I spent literally hundreds of seconds this evening poring through a vast collection of over ten e-mails from a past leader of the Waiters, whom I’ll call Muscles, and I think I can show you how he sits under the Lens.
Self-directed Identity Claim
A Self-Directed Identity Claims is exactly that—a statement to yourself about who you are. It makes you feel at home and reassures you that you are, in fact, yourself. Since e-mails are a form of communication, and mass e-mails tend to shy away from the introspective monologue, SDIC’s were hard to come by. The best I could come up with was some minor examples of inflection, some particular phrases that Muscles used identifiably often in practice, and perhaps the signature at the bottom of the e-mail. Nothing makes you feel at home more than your own name on something you’ve written.
Other-directed Identity Claim
Again, mass e-mails usually aren’t about YOUR identity. Presumably people don’t read the e-mails you send to find out who you are. So, the only times Muscles made claims about himself were when he felt like he had to establish his authority to say what had to be said. Heavier, deeper e-mails about how we were performing or why we had to buckle down and focus tended too be prefaced with an ODIC like "You guys elected me as your leader, so it's my job to say this..."
Interior Behavioral Residue
This refers to evidence of past behavior within the medium--since e-mail is a pretty sparse and recordable medium, it can either mean Muscles referring to a past message he'd sent, or me clicking through his old e-mails. So on his side, there was a lot of stacked-up residue like "once again, we have a show on Friday" or "I know I told you guys this before"; in one specific instance he apologized for an overly-harsh message he'd sent out. On my side, I could view all his e-mails as residue (or at least all his e-mails to the listserv).
Exterior Behavioral Residue
Muscles always had great stories. Since we all hang out together regularly outside practice, and ridiculous stories develop from that, one of the benefits of reading these mass e-mails was checking up on what had happened recently (if you'd missed it) or laughing at an inside joke (if you'd been there). Rarely did an e-mail go through that didn't refer to some type of crazy thing Muscles had done or witnessed. This is exterior behavioral residue--telling us about Muscles' personality in terms of how he interacted with the real world.
Five-Factor Personality
This part is either particularly difficult, or particularly easy, since I knew Muscles pretty well outside of the medium. I opted to try and describe him only from the e-mails: not very open, since he tended to discuss group goals rather than himself; extraverted, because he sent e-mails out at least three times a week; very conscientious, since he sounded focused and driven; neutral on agreeableness, since he sounded at times strict and at times less so; and particularly neurotic, since the e-mails always carried some undertone of anxiety ("remember, we have to get this done!") Not a completely fair profile of Muscles, but that's what the medium said.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
For the self-directed identity claim, do you think the domain that he uses could have played a role? We talked about in class about emails that end in .com or .org are very different from .edu. Depending on how he wants to portray himself (or what he sees himself as) he might choose a certain domain name. He might even use a different email domain when emailing different types of people. Just a thought…
I am still a little confused about your other directed identity claim category. I don’t quite understand how your explanation fits within the definition.
Your approach is very interesting because although you may find environment-individual links, I did not really consider emailing until I read your blog. Partly, it is because I thought it would be difficult to find self-directed identity claims in emails that were sent out with the purpose of relaying a message. It is difficult to really say that anything on a profile is self-directed but in an email I thought even the signature on the bottom would be other-directed. I can see how it could be self-directed though because it does remind one of who you are. I also thought it was interesting how you thought that the way the email medium portrayed Muscles was different from your ftf experience with him. This shows the limitations of making judgments on CMC compared to ftf on certain characteristics. Overall, I think it was a very unique idea to look at emails and it was great how you were able to point out cues that I didn’t really think about before.
I think you did a great job with this post. It was original, well written, informative, and complete.
I would argue that the signature in an email, if its more complicated than just your name, (say it includes your position in something, or includes a quote you like) that it is totally a self-directed identity claim. In regards to Zak, sure domain could have a lot to do with it. I know that I personally use different addresses for different kinds of audiences. The same goes for signatures. Good point.
I think Ken's example does explain the other-directed identity claim. When Muscles takes time to remind the readers of his position, he is making a claim about himself, not to boost his own ego, but to make sure it gets read. This is one of the goals of such an identity claim.
Way to go and challenge yourself, you make some good points that I wouldn't have reached if it weren't for your post. I had a hard time understanding residue, and you use clear examples that are easy to understand. Thanks!
I should've known the a-cappella people would be all over this assignment (see my post) :)
Good job on your analysis of the Brunswickian Lens Model. I would imagine that SDICs would be hard to come by if you've described "Muscles" as not open, at least in his emails. I can certainly relate to the importance of interior and exterior behavioral residues - in The Chordials, a large part of organization involves distributing minutes of rehearsal out via the listserv, with the secretary repeatedly reminding other members of gig times, meeting places, etc. If you didn't hear about it in rehearsal, then you'll be damned if you didn't read about it in the minutes because it was officially written down/typed for you. And of course, one of the salient factors in an a-cappella listserv is socialization, or Brunswik's fancy name for it, exterior behaviorial residue. Talking about said inside story via email extends our frequent chatter with each other, and gosh darn it, makes membership to the group that much more fun.
Interesting post.
I agree with Zak on his point about the domain name. It can also be argued that what he chose as a user name could very well be self-directed (for example, I have a lot of user names that are personal references or things only I would see the significance of).
On the other hand an email handle can be other-directed if it references, say, a salient aspect of popular culture and there are certain connotations attached. If the person wanted to be seen as a "modern intellectual," they'd reference A Clockwork Orange or 1984. It's sort of the difference between seeing John_Smith@gmail.com vs. SexyBabyCakes@gmail.com - the impression given is entirely different. This is just my opinion, however.
It's interesting that you chose to apply the lens in the context of emails - I wouldn't have considered that due to cues being rather limited overall, and then the possibility of having to slog through tons of messages and perhaps do an in-depth analysis of the language used.
Post a Comment