ASL?...Assignment 1

For this assignment, I decided that the best way to interact with and observe another person online would be via a form of synchronous chat room. Since this is not the sort of thing that I usually do, I simply "Googled," "chat rooms," and sifted through some of the options, finally deciding on "chat-avenue." At first I entered a chat room specifically created for college students, but was extremely overwhelmed by the pace at which people were conversing; it seemed as if everyone already knew each other, and it was a little too much for me to take, so I left that chat fairly promptly. The next chat room I entered was for Singles. I thought this would be an interesting environment in which to get acquainted with a stranger, mostly because I was interested in what types of people I would find and what they were looking for in such an environment. While this chat room too had a fairly fast pace going already, and messages strewn with sexual provocations, I stayed it out and it didn't take long for me to find a viable subject to study. The first person I acknowledged in this overwhelmingly fast-paced and hard-to-follow environment was a user named "duane." Duane was apparently interested in chatting with a nice girl that he could get to know better. Because my username had the number 44 in it, duane automatically assumed that I was 44 years old, which I found very interesting that he immediately made that judgment about me. This, of course, was his first question because due to my name he could already assume that I was a "grl." Upon assuring duane that I was not 44 years old but that I was infact 22 (lie), he told me he was 47. I then moved on to "Cam." Being in a Singles chat room, you enter the environment with the assumption that everyone is looking for a specific person that they can connect with because they're lonely and looking for some sort of attention (this is how I jumped to conclusions and over-attributed with stereotypes). Because of the stigma attached to an online meeting/dating environment, I was very wary of who I would come across, and it was initially quite difficult for me to acquaint myself to this sort of setting, so I decided that if would be best if I played a role other than my own. I would take note of what my chatting partner would say-- his online language, the topics he chose to discuss, his location, his interests, so that I would be more interesting to him. The whole time, I was wondering if Cam was doing the same thing. After a very brief conversation in the chatroom, Cam prompted me to do Private Messaging with him. Being in a chatroom for singles, I have to admit that I was very nervous at first about what would be said once we were "alone." I made outrageous stereotypes from the very beginning about the kind of person Cam was. First of all, he's the kind of person that goes on chat rooms for single people. Second of all, he prompted for a personal chat, and the first question was of course, "ASL?" It was almost shocking how quickly he asked for those details; for some reason I thought that the "ASL" thing would be taboo by now, but apparently there's absolutely no desire to beat around the bush here. Soon thereafter, Cam asked for an AIM or MSN screen name, because these made it easier to “exchange pictures” and things. I had no pictures I wanted to share, to say the least, but then I remembered that I was supposed to be playing the role of someone that WANTED to meet people in there. So I asked Cam what his intentions were on this sort of site, and he went into greater detail about his life and interests, and his desire to simply meet and get to know people in an online environment. I kept waiting for Cam to make some creepy sexual comment, but it actually didn’t happen. Afterwards, I felt sort of bad for making those immediate judgments on Cam and his intentions. I jumped to conclusions according to the stereotypes that I was familiar with, but it’s almost impossible to control making these assumptions, because they really just act as a defense mechanism. Somehow the more we think we know about someone, the more we perceive that we have some sort of control in the situation. I felt like I shouldn’t have made those assumptions in the first place, but at the same time I kept thinking that maybe I was right and that Cam’s inner creep just hadn’t hit the surface yet. I think this goes to show that once we make a first impression, it really is hard to let go of. However, my experience most aligns with the Hyperpersonal Model, because in the beginning I admittedly over-attributed on the very little data and cues I had to work with, and I also very carefully used selective-self presentation in order to portray the character that I thought would be the most interesting for Cam. However, these initial interpretations aren’t set in stone, and the stereotyping doesn’t necessarily have to prevail, as with more time, more data is received and we change our opinions accordingly. More than anything, though, the one thing that I couldn’t get out of my mind throughout this whole experience, was how Cam was probably a member of our COMM 245 class, attempting to do the exact same thing that I was doing.