I feel that the psychological space of blogs is a good way to observe someone. If I were to interact with someone in chat room, my actions could influence their behavior, and prevent me from getting a clear view of their personality.
I read “The Mountain World,” blog of writer and mountain climber, Dougald MacDonald. Since he writes almost every day and each of these entries receives many comments, I decided he must write a solid blog that would be good for the assignment.
Knowing he climbs mountains for a living, I assume he is not neurotic. I made this assessment by the content of his blog, however, not how it was written. Although, I didn’t sense any neuroticism in the way he wrote either.
I’d rate his extraversion on the low side, because his blogs seem to be more factual, about the measurements and features of mountains, than about personal feelings experienced during the climb.
The way he spoke about the issue of throwing rocks off of a mountain to clear the way, its justifications and consequences, and his experience with this task, made him seem a little more personal and open.
Since I did not interact with Dougald directly, it was tough to judge his agreeableness, but he listed many friends and colleagues that he climbs with. The fact that he seems to get along with all these people suggests that he is rather agreeable. His ability to carry on a non work-related conversation about inflation with a colleague speaks to how friendly and pleasant he is.
Dougald takes his work very seriously and tries to be as precise and successful as possible when he attacks a mountain. In terms of doing the right thing morally, he admitted to throwing rocks off of the cliffs even when he knows the dangers it poses, but since he does it only when necessary and seems to be careful about it, I’d say he has a strong moral conscience.
Looking back on my description of Dougald MacDonald, I had a limited number of cues on which to base my opinions. Thus, I imagined things to mean more than they really do. For instance, I took his mention of other climbers he works with to mean that he has many colleagues whom he climbs with regularly and are his friends and, therefore, he his a very agreeable guy. In actuality, however, this just means he works with other climbers. The way I took small cues to mean so much certainly puts my opinions in line with the predictions of the Hyperpersonal Model.
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It's interesting that your experience came from observation rather than a personal interaction, like most of the other entries I've been reading. A blog, at least to me, seems to lack the cues found in both textual CMC conversations and actual FTF conversations. You can't really observe any impulsive situational behavior. However, you seem to have found a way to overcome that obstacle and made observations by analyzing the contents of his blog. By choosing a medium that is asynchronous, I'm curious as to how you judged the truth from the lies. I think a blog would be a space where selective self-presentation plays a bigger role since there is a bigger opportunity for a user to contemplate the effects of certain information on his/her image.
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