I'd Rather Not Talk To My Friends On The Phone

I must admit that what I am about to post concerns a psychological space that more than a few of us probably considered writing about, if for no other reason than to be able to simultaneously do work and be on Facebook, and not feel too badly about it. With that said, my psychological space of choice is the Facebook message thread. This type of Internet space belongs to the asynchronous discussion forums group.

The Facebook message thread is a captivating psychological space. I happen to be best friends with the nine other females who participate in the thread, so I will attempt to dissect my impressions of these people with the perspective of an outsider.

One thing that makes this example different from other asynchronous discussion forums it is that the participants all know each other quite well. This seems to have a significant effect on the way in which the girls speak to one another. Theoretical perspectives still prove useful in understanding some of the behavior exhibited in this space, but the fact that the participants also know each other very well in real life makes understanding this space a bit more complicated. In almost any other asynchronous chat, participants have much more control over their Social Identities, but in this Facebook message thread, those involved do not seem to worry quite as much about the impressions they might form, for FtF experience almost always overrides a questionable CMC message.

This particular Facebook message thread is the easiest way for my friends from home and me to share stories, collegiate anecdotes, and other random thoughts that pop into our brains. A fair amount of behavioral confirmation goes on. This aspect of the Hyperpersonal Model is probably the most salient theoretical perspective of my message thread. My ditzy friends, E and AR, like to purposely use big words incorrectly as they tell the rest of the group about their preferred Disney Channel programming. The worldly New Yorker, A, shares witty stories on celebrity sightings, cross-dressers, and museum exhibits. The borderline alcoholics (there are more than a few) describe the strange places they find themselves on Sunday mornings. These stories often involve typos and excessive repetition of letters in certain words, as these are the CMC versions of hangover-induced FtF speech slurring. M, the quietest one, embraces her role as such, and therefore only writes when something important needs to be expressed. L, my fellow Cornellian, and I, are more often than not telling the group about our assigned blog entries.

Overall, my impressions of the Facebook message thread participants seem well aligned with aspects of the Hyperpersonal Model, especially the Behavioral Confirmation portion. The interplay of real life experiences and computer-mediated communication make this psychological internet space more complicated, and therefore at times, much more interesting.