Assignment 2: Interacting and Observing Guest2386

Over the weekend I decided on a synchronous online chat room as the psychological space where I would interact with and observe another person. It was surprising how nervous I was as I entered a chat room from a Meebo, an instant messaging website. Being nervous I created a fake persona and I became Kelly, a 20 year old Communications major from Maryland.

I found it interesting the effects that a nickname had on the number of conversations people started with me. Both cutechipmunk and friendlycactus yielded in zero conversations, while kittykat besieged me in private messages from guys looking for more than just a nice conversation. I settled on kitkat, an actual nickname of mine, and got the response I was looking for, people chatting with me in an almost everyday manner.

I ended many conversations before engaging with Guest2386 who privately messaged me and introduced himself as Mark, a 23 year old Australian graduate student in Business. Hearing he was from Sydney I automatically asked if he was a surfer. This proves that the hyperpersonal method was definitely a factor in our conversation because based on some of his answers I either exaggerated his traits or in this case stereotyped him. I did this again when he said he likes playing soccer and I assumed he was athletic rather than actually being someone who just enjoys the game. The social information-processing theory was also a factor in my conversation with Mark because I felt that while impression-relevant cues were present I would need more time interacting with Mark in order to form a more focused impression.

While I can’t say that I made a precise impression, I did make mental notes on Mark’s behaviors and how they related to the “Big Five” traits. Firstly I would say that Mark is more introverted than extraverted because while we were both in the same chat room I didn’t even notice him until he privately messaged me and he also depended on me to continue the conversation. From this I decided that he’s shy and socially awkward and thus prefers spending time alone, but it might be that based on available cues I am exaggerating his introversion

From our conversation I came to think that Mark is agreeable and seemed like a genuinely decent and honest person; he listened to what I had to say, positively responded, and was never negative towards my views. Mark also seemed to be slightly neurotic. I noticed that he tended to be emotional in his responses, his messages would often become intense and anxiety-filled, and he acted like I was abandoning him or losing interest when I didn’t immediately respond to something he said.

While I communicated and to some extent got to know Mark, I believe that I didn’t have enough interaction and information about his character to really decide how open or conscientious he is. He displayed behavior that could be described as more or less open and also more or less conscientious. But on the whole Mark seemed like a warm person and one whom I enjoyed talking to.