h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am currently labouring over a report concerning personality as it is conveyed through the medium of internet communication. Would anyone be interested in considering and suggesting answers to the following?

1. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?

2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?

3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?

4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?

And anything else relevent to this subject.

I thank you in advance.

CMC?

I'll come back to this and fill the blanks later.

5. No. I intended to, but I never got around to it.

4. My personas here and in 'real life' are the same, but then, some people I know in real life (like my brother) are also h2g2 reseachers, so I don't have an oppertunity to present a different face to the world here. None of the people I know personally are active on site anymore, but they might pop in from time to time.

3. n/a

2. n/a - Never been to a meet.

1. This is the one I'll come back to later.

TRiG_Ireland.

2. I have found that some people are quite different in real life from the persona they convey on the internet. People are much less aggressive in real life than they appear on the internet. I don't know whether this is because people feel less inhibited in text only communications or because the aggression is only perceived due to the poor quality of the medium.

1. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?

It depends on the context, and on who you're talking to.

2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?

What's CMC?

I've met a fair few people, and they were all just how I expected them to be.

3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?

It's not only couples/partners who move on to email/phone, and in-person communication.
One reason to switch to these forms of communication certainly is to make appointments for an upcoming meet.


4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?

Yes, on the whole, I'd say so, but I guess it's rather up to the people I've met to judge on this.

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?

No.

1. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?
By the language you use, phrases, style. The emotions you express in words, and use of smilies

2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?
CMC??? Pretty much - of course looks differ when you see someone you have only imagined the looks of, but that's to be expected! I have a harder time diving into conversation in real life, and perhaps when you are used to reading and typing your conversation, the style is slightly different than when you talk, especially in a fast moving conversation. It is harder to come up with a witty response, and I tend to be more quiet. Until I really get comfortable, then watch out!

3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?
Pass.

4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?
It might be more the way I would like to be.
I choose to hide some aspects of my life - but less and less! The support you can find and get here is addictive, and with age, I feel less of a need to show a perfect facade...

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?
Yes. I have recently created a second account to deal with reflection and evaluation on personal issues. So I still get the support, but the issue is not related to my usual persona.

How is that for self contradiction?

1. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?

In the main I think it is in much the same way as if you heard someone over the phone, it's the words they use, language and so forth, and, simply, what they say and how the respond to others.

2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?

Never been to an H2G2 meet, but having met people from other sites in person, I find that people can often be freer and more relaxed online, perhaps a little more outlandish, maybe more they way they would like to be than the way they are happy to be on the outside. Is that a little too intense?

3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?

Have only ever met friends on the internet, can't off the top of my head remember when I started e-mailing / phoning any of them, but I suspect it was, as Bel suggests, expediency, as in 'no problem, I'll e-mail it to you' or 'give me your number I'll phone you when I know...' something like that.

4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?

Again, I think it's how I would be if I had a five second delay. With the benefit of previews and stuff, I can filter myself, so that stupid things I might say, espeically jokes I might make that are inappropriate or not funny, sometimes get filtered out, rather than said, as they would be face to face.

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?

Personally, no.

1. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?
... with varying degrees of success depending on the way someone writes and what they are writing about. And of course, you cannot predict how another person is going to *read* what you've written.

2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?
... what's CMC? Most people from h2g2 that I have met in person have turned out to be pretty much how I 'experienced' them onsite. I've yet to attend a London Meet though, and meet hootooers en masse (eep! ).

3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?
... um, just when we got more interested in each other. Seemed a natural progression. Though someone else here has pointed out that this also works with friends, not just couples/partners. I also have many friends I initially met here on h2g2 with whom I now communicate in many other ways.

4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?
... I think I'm more forthright on h2g2 than I am in RL. In person I tend to go way out of my way to avoid any sort of confrontation, but on debate threads here I don't find confrontation so personally threatening somehow. Other than that I think that my 'az' persona is similar to my own personality, depending on the situation.

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?
... nope, never.


az

. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?

-by my own perception of other's written words.

2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?

- what does CMC stand for? No one was quite as I imagined them physically, but personality wise, generally as *I read them.

3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?

I used gut instinct with anyone I met thru H2G2; I've not become a couple or found a partner on here. but then, it wouldn't cross my mind to do so, really. I meet "people" The fact that some are of the opposite gender is neither here nor there!

4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?

Its accurate as far as opinions/activities go, but not socially. I am far friendlier, demonstrative, and outgoing in RL, and less stilted in speech.

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?

What? With my memory? I'd have enough trouble with one password!

I chose my name as it is the opposite to me, I am somewhat boringly normal! I found out later it was the name of a person from a film.
.
As to whether I am differant on here than in real life, well being anonomous makes it easier to be more free in views than a politically correct world allows these days.

1. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?

I think that personality is conveyed the same as through any other form of communication. People can tell if you're funny/smart/a jerk by your posts, same as through face-to-face communication.

2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?

I'm not too sure what CMC means either, but I've found that in general my impression of people has been the same IRL as online. There's only one person I've met at a meet that I didn't particularly like in person versus on hootoo. I've only ever pictured one person the way they really look, though!

3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?

I made the email suggestion in a convo we were having when I wanted to get to know him better. I figured we could talk in "private" that way, and go on at length. That moved onto IM, and then I just had to speak to him, so I surprised him in the middle of IMing with "Can I call you?" ... "What, now?" We then spoke for 6 hours the first time, and 5 hours the next day. We really fell in love over the phone. He had made plans to travel here first (New York), but I couldn't wait that long to meet him, so I went to where he lived first (Houston). We've been married for 4 1/2 years.

I think that all of that real communication we had before we met in person made a huge difference in our relationship. Most people go on dates, see movies, do things, and keep busy when they're dating, but we just had talking and communicating in the beginning of our relationship. There's nothing we don't discuss now, and we both know how very lucky we were to have met in this way. If it wasn't for h2g2, we never would have met!

4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?

I think so. I'm a little more "flirty" here than I am IRL, but then again, I think I'm funnier IRL, so it's mostly accurate-ish.

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?

Just once, to make a character that existed in people's minds come to life. It was just a joke, though.

>> ...couldn't wait that long to meet him, so I went to where he lived first (Houston). We've been married for 4 1/2 years. <<

Omigod! Has it been that long?

Congratulations.

~jwf~

1. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?

Through use, misuse, abuse of language and ideolect. The use, or non-use, of smileys . Using *asterisks* for *emphasis* and CAPS FOR SHOUTING!!!

2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?

Well, I put CMC into http://www.acronymfinder.com and found nothing relevant on the first 3 pages of definitions...so, like everyone else, can I ask what the Carboxymethylcellulose you're on about?

There are a number of aids to expectations of people at h2g2 meets: 1: your personal dealings with them on h2g2 over a range of subjects; 2: photos available either from previous meets, peoples' journals, and Az's photo album; 3: what they tell you about themselves on their own personal spaces, together with links to personal blogs and other sites.

That said, I've often been surprised by people when I meet them. This is usually because I have to overcome my own inbuilt irrational stereotypes.

3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?

Don't really want to comment on this one.

4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?

No. I think in some ways it's more rational, yet more forthright, more assertive. Then again, sometimes it's sillier than I am (which takes some doing! ). I think I'm equally pervy IRL as I am here.

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?

I have a lurking account, but frankly I rarely bother with it these days. There's no disguising who I am, and I don't see the need. Never been one for using sock puppets either.

RF

I'd assumed that "CMC" stood for "computer mediated communication"?

1. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?

I agree with a lot of what others have said about this previously. I also think that certain turns of phrase or "catch" phrases give away a hint as to a person's personality.


2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?

I've never been to an h2g2 meet, yet. I've met in person five people from h2g2, and found that with three of them, my impression was correct, and with two, I was WAY off. But then one of them was a pathological liar, so it would have been difficult for me to form an accurate impression of that individual.


3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?

I've never dated a fellow hootooer, but have moved on to email, telephone and in-person communication with several h2g2 friends. With most people, I guess it's just been a natural progression. As I get to know some people better, there are things I'd like to share with them that aren't approriate for internet discussion.

After a couple of really negative experiences, it's more difficult now for me to feel comfortable with meeting in person.

4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?

Yes, I do.

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?

No.

1. How is personality conveyed through textual posts?

With difficulty, actually. They do say that 90% of your message is in body langauge, and it is extremely difficult to emulate that in written text, even with an array of smilies.

2. From h2g2 meets have you found that your CMC impression is accurate?

There's always been something about the RL person and persona that surprised me.

3. How did couples/partners who met through h2g2 decide when to move on to email, telephone, and in-person communication?

Varies. I have friends on hootoo that I email but have never met. I've had 2 relationships that started one way or another on here - both progressed to the next level through an actual real life meeting: I doubt if a relationship would have resulted just from our on line interaction. If I were honest I was pre-disposed to dislike both before face-to-face interraction.

4. Do you think the persona you present is accurate portrayal of your RL persona?

Ish. It's accurate in that when the message leaves me it's pure. How it is percieved or construed is beyond my control.

5. Have you ever experimented with persona, possibly through use of multiple accounts?

Minimally. Haven't really gained anything from it, and don't currently do it.

And anything else relevent to this subject.
Yes. How do you manage online civility once your RL connection changes ( for the worse, say). Do you go for politeness (and run the risk of that being mis-interpreted as wanting to stay friends) or do you go for total avoidance (and so cut yourself off from former playmates and pastimes?)

Thank you, everyone.
CMC does indeed stand for Computer Mediated Communication, the blanket term for any communication through a computer interface.

>> the blanket term <<

In keeping with the overall subject, Persona/Personality, may I suggest it was a wet blanket.
Well, I guess that just about covers it.

~jwf~