This weekend, I had a very interesting interaction with a friend over the psychological space of instant messaging (IM). I was struggling with a homework assignment in a class we took together so I decided to IM her with in-depth questions and in return, was looking for detailed answers. I am a person who likes to multitask as much as possible. Naturally, I choose IM to work out the difficulties of our homework so I would be able to choose when I would carefully read her answers in order to do other things—such as checking my email, making some dinner, getting ready to go out, etc.. After saving the conversation, this psychological space provided me with a recorded discussion to look back on and thoroughly think through when I actually sat down to do the assignment. For me, IMing was the best choice because it allowed me to multitask. If I had called her, I would not have been able to multitask since I would have had to listen attentively and I would not have had a recorded discussion to refer to later. A face-to-face interaction would not have been efficient as I may have forgotten a question to ask and the time it would take to walk to her apartment, discuss the homework, then walk back to my apartment would be poor time management.
For this specific instance I would argue that although instant messaging is considered to be a synchronous psychological space because it is based on real-time responses, I personally used it as an asynchronous space by giving delayed responses so I could take my time and choose when to read her answers. This case would disprove O’Sullivan’s Impression Management Theory because the need I had to get detailed responses that I could use at my convenience was much more important to me than my self-presentation. However, my situation supports the Media Richness Theory. Since instant messaging has a quick availability of feedback but lacks multiplicity of cues, it is viewed as a lean medium. Additionally, the task I was executing was very straightforward and not equivocal, or vague, at all. Thus, I was being very efficient.
As I was working on homework tonight (Monday), the people who live below me where blasting music as usual. I was pretty bothered by this because it was a Monday night. I have put up with this since classes started so I was getting pretty fed up. However, I did not want to sound like a loser who studies all the time so I decided to ask them to turn their music down by text messaging one of the people who lived in the apartment. They text messaged me back with an apology as I heard the music lower.
In this instance, I was in fact worried about my self-presentation amongst the people who lived below me because I did not want them to change the social butterfly impression I had already formed of myself to them, to one of a studious nerd. Therefore, the media I selected supports O’Sullivan’s Impression Management Theory because I chose a lean channel to carefully choose my words as I would not have had the time or option in a face-to-face interaction that may have ended up costing me my preferred impression. In addition, my situation disproved the Media Richness Theory because I was less interested in how efficient my task was and more interested about the clarity of my message in order to avoid skewing the impression they have of me.
1 comment:
Krystal,
I agree with how both of your scenerios support the media theories you chose. Your first selection of instant messaging over a more rich phone call or face to face conversation supports the Media Richness Theory. In this case, the leaner medium of instant messaging was the best option for you and your friend to discuss lengthly problems and also attend to other tasks at the same time. The task was less equivocal, and according to the Media Richness Theory, it can allow for a computer mediated form of communication.
Although I agree that your second example does support O'Sullivan's Impression Mangaement Model, I believe it could also be argued that it supprts the Media Richness Theory as well. Telling a friend to turn down his or her music would seem to be a less uquivocal task. According to the Media Richness Theory, it is common for these conversations to take place in a leaner meadium like text messaging. I do agree, however, that the leaner medium allowed you to preserve your self-image, as illustrated in O'Sullivan's model. Face to Face conversation would have created more room for error, where in text message you could choose your words carefully.
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