After talking with a variety of different male characters for last week’s assignment, I felt that I was pretty well versed in how males interact over computer mediated communication. Thus, I decided to enter the same synchronous chat room as I did last week, only this time, I was not Lauren, a 20 year old female from New York, yet rather Mike, a 20 year old male from New York.
Although most people with e-mail or instant messenger accounts do not spend much time considering the impression their email or IM addresses make, I realized how important my “nickname” was in impression management on the Internet. After all, as Wallace states nicely in Psychology of the Internet, each time someone types a line and contributes it to the conversation, that nickname appears alongside it and becomes an attribute linked to every single thing the person says. Therefore, my first step in my impression management was choosing a screen name that was obviously male, and with a little help from Wallace, I, who entered the chat room last week as prettylady410, entered the chat room this week as toughdude07.
Upon my entrance, I took what I learned from the countless number of males who I observed last week, and typed my opening line, the interpersonal probe: 20/m/ny, a/s/l? Although it was a tad direct and forward, I decided that the less cues I disclosed, the better off I was in keeping my real gender a secret, as described by Wallace and as supported by the social information processing theory. While my directness was a common theme throughout my impression management, I also continued to manage my impressions by trying to say things that were so obviously “guy-like.” Interestingly, however, I found myself using stereotypes throughout many of my conversations. For example, I used the common phrases of “yo,” “dude,” and “sick” more often than Lindsay Lohan’s rehab stays, and spoke of my day in terms of eating, working out, and watching TV.
This synchronous chat room affected my presentation of a “self” in a variety of ways. For starters, CMC online forums such as the one I entered allow people to only share some of who they are in any given situation, and it is thus easy to selectively present what cues people want others to see. Because of the lack of nonverbal, vocal, situational, and physical cues, I was able to pick and choose how I wanted to present myself. I was also able to ensure that any cues that would give away my real identity as a female were not presented to others. Although, according to Goffman and Jung, the ideal self would come through more in asynchronous spaces such as e-mail, I was still able to think about and choose what information I wanted to present to the people I spoke with; my self-descriptions, attitude expressions, and social associations I communicated to others were all presented to the people I spoke with the way I wanted them to see me.
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3 comments:
I too gender switched. Trying to take on the persona of a man is quite a difficult task, at least for me anyway. Thinking of what to say and how to present yourself are important factors in maintaining your identity. I agree with you when you say choosing a screen name is a major component in successfully identity switching. Choosing a simple and identifiable screen name minimizes any questioning as to whether you are a man or not. To further secure my identity as man, I tried to only say enough to get my point across and not to say more than I needed. I see you did the same thing. The less cues the impression developer knows, the less likely they are to suspect anything. How you associate yourself and how you express your attributes affirms your identity as a man and allows the receiver to “trust” you more. Great post and well written!
I also did a gender switch deception, and I too found it absurdly easy to convey the exact self I wanted to convey because of the vocal and other nonverbal cues not present during computer mediated communication.
To be convincing as a female, all I really had to do was change my style of speech a little, using some phrases I normally wouldn't use, extra exclamation points here or there...very simple changes, but they worked. It's sort of disturbing how easy it is for anyone, really, to deceive someone else online.
I also find it a little disturbing (though I can't really explain on what level) just how common this "a/s/l" thing is; it seems to crop up near the beginning of every single one-on-one conversation in a chat room I've seen or taken part in. I'd never realized just how ingrained into the chat culture it was.
I like how you brought up the idea of having time to think about what you said before you typed. I too gender switched and now this post made me think of the lesson "think before you speak/act." I feel that many times it becomes easy to decieve someone online because you have time to think about what they want to hear before you. The thoughts of selective self-presentation and behvioral confirmation now make me shiver in my pants a little because people can play a part so well after they know which part to play.
Also, I began to think about those who are able to decieve in FtF communication. One of my friends (who I am the complete opposite of) is the master manipulator and I notice that he has a number of weak bonds and always says the same things, which he has thought about already, to different people. He also walks around with a smile to take away the negative facial cues. Did I mention that he'll soon have a bad reputation.
Point is, deception is very easy once you think about what other people want to hear. This happens in schools, online, in business, etc. I guess I've learned to be careful of who to trust although I know I deserve to give everyone a chance.
Great, Thought-provoking post!
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