I went into a chat room with the name of Rachel. As I entered everyone welcomed me and I said hello. The conversation went slowly at first, but eventually began to pick up. The age ranged from a thirteen year old boy from Toronto, Canada to an eighteen year old boy from right outside of Las Angeles in California. There was also a thirteen year old girl, and so when they asked me my “ASL”, I told them I was 18, just so they wouldn’t be too creeped out. The youngest boy in the chat room was the leader of the conversation. He would send us youtube links to songs and share his love for music with us. At one point I received a message from someone named “guest 4991”. This kid was from California and was talking very openly about his past sexual experiences and other inappropriate things. I asked him why he felt like he needed to share this with me, and he responded by saying, “I don’t know, it was conversation”. He was bragging about all the partying he does and then says “but I feel like that wouldn’t be something are you are into”. Just from our ten minute conversation, he felt confident enough to make assumptions about me, my personality and how I spend my time.
This kid was probably using the hyperpersonal theory to fill in the blanks about what I was like. I was not giving him very much information about myself and was being uptight about the things he was saying and would often ask him why he just told me that piece of information. Really the only things he knew about me was that I was white, 18 years old and lived on the east coast. If I was to talk with this kid another time, the SIP theory would come into play because I would get to know him much better over time. Since we only talked for about fifteen to twenty minutes, the impressions I got of the boy was that he was a punk who liked looking cool and was obsessed with sex. All in all, pretty lame. But, as I write that, I am making judgements and using the hyperpersonal theory to put two and two together to try and form a whole. I don’t know his whole story, or any of it, really, and so who am I to judge and pretend that I know him? If I was talking to this kid face to face, more information would be exchanged and due to body language and style, I would be able to form a more complete and holistic picture of who this “guest 4991” really is.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
(Comment by Emily Etinger.)
You made some very interesting observations, both about yourself, and "guest 4991." You did a good job tying the concepts from class into your post. I agree with your comments about the hyperpersonal model, that the person you were chatting with used the theory to complete his thoughts about you, since you weren't telling him too much about yourself. It's interesting that he spoke so freely about himself with you. I like the questions you asked him, like "why are you telling me these things?" It's great that he answered very straightforwardly. Great post!
Post a Comment