The internet space I will be writing about is an asynchronous discussion forum called College Confidential. The forum, which I came to know a few days ago, is quite interesting. Basically high school students post their stats and such, hoping for feedback into entrance into universities. I had come across someone who went by the username Santabanta2. Basically this male (or so he claims) has had 169 posts since August 2007. That averages to about 5 posts a day. After going through some of his older posts, I decided to join the forum, and answer his questions, or at least attempt to.
Given the nature of the posts (he was asking for chances on college admissions) I guessed he was about 16 years old. The subject of his posts was “what are my chances: mediocre applicant.” At first I felt, this kid was being honest and frank- he did not have great stats, but just wanted some input. At this point I felt his honesty provided a warming effect on the forum. As I clicked on the subject, I saw the following:
Private High School - Bay Area, CA
SAT1 - 2400
SAT2 - Math2 750, Bio 780, Chem 770
APs - CalcAB and BC 5, Chem 5, Bio 5, Eng 5, APUSH 5
3.99 GPA UW - Taken the most rigorous courses (11 APs)
Expecting awesome recs, will be fantastic for sure
WHAT ARE MY CHANCES OF GETTING INTO STANFORD, HARVARD, BERKELEY?
For one, these stats are not “mediocre” by any means. Furthermore, upon analyzing this person’s characteristics, I have come up with the following:
· Neuroticism - Santabanta receives a low score for neuroticism. Although Santabanta was criticized as “fishing for compliments” and being “full of himself”, he remained cool and composed. Maybe because he wanted proper answers for his questions he could not act harshly toward other forum visitors. It may have just been the forum environment that pushed him to stay composed.
· Extroversion - I do not feel Santabanta was extroverted by any means. He had posted 169 posts, that of which they were solely dedicated to his own stats. He had never responded to a question posed by another fellow collegeconfidential visitor. Therefore, I feel he is not extroverted, but rather introverted, possibly self-absorbed in his own numbers.
· Agreeableness - Santabanta was agreeable. In the midst of constant criticism regarding his use of the word “mediocre”, he still persevered. He even admitted to “fishing for compliments.” This is selective self-presentation. I am sure Santabanta had other responses to his fellow forum lurkers when he was told he was “fishing for compliments”, but regardless, he accepted it laughingly, and followed his response with emoticons.
· Openness - Santabanta was not open by any means. He was open to discuss his own stats, but never took an interest in other people’s stats. This portrays a self-absorbed impression of him.
· Conscientiousness - Santabanta was very conscious of his own thread. He accepted comments and criticisms, because he probably did not want them to hold up discussion of his own stats. However, he was not conscious of other people’s threads. Regardless, his proper language, and responses to criticisms show his exercising of self-presentation.
I think this was an example of the CFO perspective. Firstly, the lack of verbal and relational cues produced a depersonalized form of communication, and decreased awareness of others, inhibiting more relations within the college confidential forum. The forum eliminated all impression relevant signals, so Santabanta was able to constantly talk about and follow his and only his thread. In the SIDE model, which this situation also reflects, one forms stereotypes that are more accented because of the limited social and interpersonal cues available. My final impression of Santabanta is that he is very self-absorbed in his own numbers. His words “expecting awesome recs, will be fantastic for sure”, definitely show this. But it may be that he was just trying to get to the point, as this internet space is a forum, and responses are lagged as it is. Also we saw that the communicative limitations of CMC engaged Santabanta to exercise selective self-presentation. Because Santabanta was limited to only textual information, his positive and desirable cues (as accepting the criticisms laughingly with emoticons) allowed him to present himself to the world in a positive manner while masking his other characteristics.
The word “masking”, seems so deceptive, but I guess in this day and age where we are part of an internet driven society, masking oneself is the norm. Quite sad if you stand back and really think about it.
6 comments:
Heena-
After reading your post, I was reminded of myself as a 'pre-frosh' leading up to the days of finally becoming a Cornellian. College Confidential is a great source for college information and it was unique to see that you were able to pull information from that site/forum/blog to incorporate it into this class. The individual whom you are talking about is a bit out of the ordinary and I believe you pin-pointed his/her characteristics perfectly. Of the Big 5 characteristics, the one that stood out in my mind was Neuroticism. Not only did this person post a ridiculous number of times on College Confidential, but announcing to the world and waiting confirmation from them to decide if he/she would get into a place like Harvard is a bit ridiculous. How can people, just by looking at standardized test scores (which may be inflated), tell if a person is going to get into a particular school or not? Furthermore, your other comments about the Big 5 were right on: the openness comment was direct but very true. I enjoyed reading your post and nice job!
A chat room where you can converse about your likelihood to get accepted into different colleges based on your statistics is pretty useful. What will they think of next? I think any brief conversation can be construed as a model of the CFO perspective, just because of the lack of verbal and visual cues. Especially in this case where its ambiguous whether or not this student is being entirely truthful, or serious at all. It sounds like either way, he made a pretty negative impression on you. From his description, i am turned off as well. Anyone who would go on one of those websites and brag registers as being self-involved and arrogant in my book. On the flip side, if he was making everything up, he is decietful, leaving an equally distasteful impression on me. In any event, i think the interaction with him can be categorized as a model of the Hyperpersonal theory as well, as this person appears to have exhibited selective self-presentation- onlly sharing his positive attributes. In terms of forming an impression, its possible to exaggerate the few cues he gave you- modeling the over-attribution process. Also, reallocation of cognitive resources could be at play as well, as sole focus was on the text because there are far fewer cues than when communicating face to face. Perhaps if there was an extended period of time to converse with people, it would be easier to categorize impressions more definitively under either the hyperpersonal model or the CFO model.
I liked this post a lot. While I was never a real “college confidential user” before I entered school, I do remember some posts there and I couldn’t help myself but to check the website again before I posted this. It’s really quite amusing to see these massive overachievers obsess and nitpick over there stats like there is some magic combination of numbers and extracurriculars that will get them into a good school. It’s all random chance or who you know. I definitely agree with the neuroticism part of your post – all of those kids are beyond neurotic. I agree will all others as well except for possibly openness. I think he is in fact being very open by discussing what is basically his entire college application to an open forum. It’s kind of risky if you think about how open that is. I would have to agree that this is a combination of CFO and hyperpersonal model. For CFO, there definitely is a lack of other information to go about judging this kid other than his overly forward post. The hyperperrsonal model can explain parts as well, particulary the over attribution. Immediately upon reading the title of the post you hate this kid. Interesting topic.
This was one of my favorite posts this week. As a college freshman myself, I can easily remember the days of comparing SAT scores and weighing the chances of getting into certain colleges. I agree with what the other comments have said in that this can also be an example of the hyperpersonal model but more in regards to breadth and intensity of feelings. The only medium you have for judging this student is the information he posts about himself (which happen to be stellar academic statistics) and the comments he makes on the site (which are apparently only about himself). From this limited information, you don’t know the student in breadth at all. Since it is an academic forum, it makes sense to talk about academics, but this limits the impression you get of his interests. However, the way he describes himself, especially as a “mediocre student,” makes you feel like you know him intensely. Even from just reading your blog, I got a strong and negative impression of this boy. In my mind, I immediately related him to the annoying, overachieving, compliment-seeking, self-deprecating kids I went to high school with and developed a strong sense of distaste for him, despite the fact that I really know little about him. This really exemplifies how strong first impressions can be, both on the internet and in real life, and why it might be important to consider what you say and how people will perceive you based on your behaviors. Thanks for a great post Heena!
After reading your post I'm even more grateful that my application process went well. I can remember when all people would talk about in my high school classes were SAT grades and college credentials. Eventually i found all the competition tiresome. In regards to this website, the experience you've outlined definitely falls under the CFO model. I would think that a forum of this sort could quickly degenerate into a competition over who has the best grades. In a forum like this a person can use selective self-presentation to leave out key points about their personality and exaggerate their better credentials. I can see this forum providing a slightly misinformed view of a person's chances of getting into a certain school. Due to the lack of cues and the nature of the hyperpersonal model I would not be surprised if people saw Santabanta as being introverted and self absorbed. Because of the limitations of CMC I wonder whether Santabanta was on the forum to brag or whether he was legitimately looking for advice. I don't really see the forum as being the proper place to discuss one's college credentials expecting to get truly valuable advice. Good post!
Heena,
I must say, really incredible post; probably one of the most interesting and analytical entries for this week. I actually really want to first point out the formatting you used for your analysis and explanation of your observations. The bullet system really draws readers to your post and it also appears much more organized than just running paragraphs.
I also commend you on your use of College Confidential, rather than just entering a chat room or ICQ. Not only were your observations/analysis interesting, but starting out with a good topic pretty much led it to success. I like your before/after take on SantaBanta. Seeing your reactions to his/her post subject and maybe even the username itself really balanced well with your “after” reaction. I wonder about your openness analysis, though. Maybe he could be considered open because of what he was willing to share about himself? Does openness have to constitute one’s opinions of others as well? I guess that’s something we all just have to think about.
Again, really great post. I’ll be looking forward to your posts in the future. :)
-Kristie
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