Modality switching (MS) is moving from online communication to FtF interaction. MS affects relationship evaluations. An example of a MS occurred in my life recently. On facebook you often become familiar, or at least feel familiar with certain people that you have never met before. Well what happens when you actually do meet one of these “familiar” facebook people in real life? This is exactly what happened to me: I met the person I was stalking on facebook.
Last year on one of my random facebook surfing procrastination sessions I came across this guy, named “Elmo”. He looked cute and interesting in his pictures so I decided to go ahead and read his profile, wall posts, groups, etc. From what I gathered from his facebook profile and pictures, I thought Elmo was a loud, outgoing, fun loving, party boy type guy. He seemed to live a really interesting and exciting college life. I also thought he would have a lot to say about everything; kind of a jerk. This described the hyperpersonal effect where I developed an exaggerated and intense impression formation of Elmo. I kept coming across his online profile (I guess we had mutual friends in common), until this year when our interaction shifted to FtF because he ended of being in one of my classes. The class is small and he sits in front of me so when we do group work we are usually in the same group. He turned out to be completely different from what I expected. He wasn’t loud or outgoing at all. He is actually very quiet, shy and studious. Frankly, he is pretty boring, and not overly friendly as I had assumed. I was shocked! Our FtF meeting violated my expectations of Elmo. Elmo clearly had used self-presentational techniques online to give of a persona of a frat-boy. The hyperpersonal model led to over-attribution and exaggeration of feelings that ultimately led to disappointment when MS occurred. I thought that Elmo was going to be an interesting and fun person who would make my class fun with stupid/funny wise-cracks, but instead he is boring and not so interesting after all.
I would consider my interaction with Elmo a long-term online association since I came across his facebook profile several times. Since we had a long-term interaction, I had a wider array of expectations of him and more exaggerated opinions. Thus when we met FtF, there was more expectations that Elmo violated than if we had had a short-term online association. Consequently, more negative and uncertainty provoking evaluations of Elmo ensued. This corresponds to Ramirez & Wang’s results in the “When On-line meets Off-line” paper.
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3 comments:
Hey Dina,
Interesting post. I'm wondering whether or not the SIP factor of the hyperpersonal model played a role in your impression formation. You've stated that you came across the profile several times and had interacted with Elmo prior to meeting him FtF, but I was wondering if he presented himself similar to his FtF self on CMC and lead you finding more about him. Your posts a great example of the over-attribution factor of the hyperpersonal model, seeing a few "frat-boy" traits automatically led you to label him a "jerk". But then again, maybe he is actually a jerk but only to close friends.
You do a really good job with tying your personal experience in with the Hyperpersonal model as well as the article by Ramirez and Wang. You raise a really interesting point when you argue how important “Elmo’s” self-presentation played in your eventual disappointment when you finally met him this year. Like we said in class, it’s very unlikely someone will try and portray themselves negatively online, which resulted in your inflated impression of him. Another possible explanation for this negative outcome from your MS could also come from SIDE because a different social category (i.e. “Cornell student”) is salient while he’s in class than another social identity (i.e. “frat boy”). Good job.
Dina,
Good post, and great analysis of your situation! This was obviously a modality switch and it mirrored the aspects described by the hyperpersonal model, such as the over-attribution process. I wonder how ever if Elmo wasn't necessarily selectvely self-presenting. Maybe those attributes descibed in his profile were true and he is more outgoing with a bit more interaction? It may just be that the process is a bit slower in a face-to-face environment--this is why I think the hyperpersonal model may apply even more here. Also, in terms of modaliy switching, coming from a Facebook impression to a face-to-face online obviously had some different levels of implications and I think your example is a good one in that it covers the diversity of Ramirez & Wang’s discussion.
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