After popping in and out of miscellaneous AOL chatrooms, I found one titled SoCalFriendsNLovers. Like most of the other chatrooms, I found this one relatively boring. It featured 35 screennames, yet only about 3 were actually talking. Frustrated and wanting to get started on this assignment, I decided to Instant Message one of the members, DARRYLTorrance.
He appeared to be very friendly as we began our conversation talking about southern California. I noticed that he was open; he was willing to discuss the city he lives in, which is also a part of his screenname. After telling him the general area I grew up in, he seemed dissapointed that it was so far from Torrance. It's actually an hour drive, which I thought was not far considering I'm actually in New York.
One thing that came to my attention was his excessive use of emoticons. Looking back at the conversation, I counted 8 in all. Most of them were the big cheesy grin, usually in repsonse to something I said with which he agreed. This gave me the understanding he was in a good mood, despite complaining a few times about the fact that he was bored in Torrance.
Then, he asked about my taste in music. I told him I am a big Dave Matthews fan, and he seemed to like that. He even began offering suggestions of bands to download. This confirmed my impression that he was agreeable and open.
My theories I found were in line with the Cues Filtered Out Theories. Based on the fact that he was in a chatroom gave me the impression that he is lonely. He confirmed this by mentioning that he was bored with the city he lives in. In addition, his use of emoticons gave me the feeling that he was easily amused. My impression of him was relatively neutral due to the lack of verbal cues.
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2 comments:
Hi Jenny,
I agree that DARRYLTorrance shows agreeableness. You said that he agreed with your taste of music and he also expanded on your interest by giving you potential bands to listen to. You also mentioned how he used emoticons to show he agreed about what you said. In addition, he seemed to be extraverted by asking about your taste in music.
I see where you thought your impression agrees with the CFO predictions with your neutral impression of him. However, I also see support for the hyperpersonal model in your blog. You mentioned how DARRYLTorrance continually used emoticons, specifically happy faces. Emoticons are textual representations of feelings so maybe he was bored, but it seemed like he was enjoying your conversation together. He may have sent you excessive emoticons as a form of selective self representation. Maybe he was continually agreeing with you to make it seem like you have a lot in common, and as a result, you will like him more.
Hi Jenny. I enjoyed reading your blog. There is one particular part of your blog that I am so glad you decided to talk about, emoticons. Personally, I am not a big fan of emoticons. I think emoticons are something children in fourth grade use. I find it so difficult to hold any type of conversation with someone who uses smiley faces. However, I agree with you when you said that smiley emoticons would show that someone is a warm and nice person. I just do not understand why someone over the age of thirteen would seriously include emoticons in their conversation with someone else.
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