One broken Ipod, a pet dog and a used sofa in exchange for a two hour back rub? Craigslist has got you covered. Craigslist, for those still living in the 90s, is a rapidly growing internet classifieds bulletin board started in 2000. Jobs, housing, for sale, gigs and services all can be posted without charge.
Weird? Check. Shameless? Check. Sketchy? Check.
The most active and entertaining sections is Craigslist personals. Strictly platonic, women seek women, women seeking men, men seeking women, men seeking men, misc romance, casual encounters, missed connections, rants and raves are the categories in a no holds barred forum of human desires. Due to the anonymity of the postings socially accepted norms are often thrown out the window. Every once in a while a gem like http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ksc/395322346.html will pop up.
Though I personally have not had any experience with Craigslist Personals, every once in a while a I will read good post usually featured on best of craigslist like The Rules for dating on Craigslist. From the advice given by the poster, it is clear that he has had some experience in online dating or personals. Dating on Craigslist generally happens like so: you see an ad that you like and email the person >> the other person probably does a preliminary screening and emails you back >> a couple more emails are exchanged before deciding a meeting place for a date >> date. For the most part I would have to say moving from Craigslist to a face to face environment is relationship dampening due to expectancy violation. The effect of timing doesn’t play a part because I assume most relationships move to Ftf at about the same point which is early in the relationship. It was easy to find posts like this one http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sea/44001372.html on bad dating experiences but I could not find a single one in which people have had an enjoyable or successful experience. It might just be because people leave the online space once they have a life.
SIP theory plays less of a part in this situation because the modality switch generally occurs early in the relationship. However it would not be supported because many of the posts show that users have a jarring experience in the first face to face meeting. Uncertainty remains relatively high until Ftf interaction however it is hard to say that there is always a direct correlation between increased information and greater liking and intimacy. This theory only seems true in relationships where candidates are assumed to be a good fit for each other. SIDE theory plays a larger role in this situation in which users have a very high level of anonymity and selective self presentation in the Craiglist and email spaces. However in Ftf interaction partners are individuated which leads to decreased social attraction. Whether the person is The "Couple of Extra Pounds" guy or the The Alcoholic Who Hid The Fact That He Had a DUI and Thus Could Not Allow Me in His Car, my findings support that leaving virtuality in Craigslist personals generally had negative outcomes. This fits in to the long term results of Ramirez and Wang. Negative expectation violations were common, often with a selection bias when exchanging pictures. More study needs to be done on the emails exchanged and opinions before and after Ftf meetings do apply URT and Hyperpersonal Theory.
It could be completely possible that the Craigslist Personals community does not draw from a “normal” distribution of people. However unless you are feeling adventurous, I would say to try your local bar or party before hitting up Craigslist.
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3 comments:
You never let me down austin, great post. Really interesting topic choice. Im surprised craigslist wasn't dicussed more in the blogs. you did a nice job of applying theory to Modality switches. goodluck on your finals
I appreciated that the Ramirez and Wang study made a point of accounting for the varying specificity of people's "expectations": what an individual expects, and how great the violation is if a discrepancy arises in FtF. These two items are, seemingly, difficult to generalize, especially in real word situations.
One might surmise that you found "successful" engagements led to happy FtF times -- or at least enounters that didn't involve much Craigslist. One might guess that FtF interactions would supplment earlier CMC interaction, if the modality switch was successful (as in, CMC--FtF-X-CMC). CMC may be minimized or dissolved completely. Perhaps phone calls and texts would become the new mediated interaction, rather than dating sites and AIM. But again, everyone expects different things out of their relationship (STA, LTA, in between).
hahahha...austin this is a great post! craigslist has always been something that makes me laugh, just because of how rediculous some people are that are on there. you've really captured the weird, sketchy essence of craiglist perfectly. awesome job.
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