Introverts, as we might think, are a group of people that would like the style of online communication more than offline communication because of the features the former one has, like not-face-to-face, anonymity, and easy-to-log-off. However, it is hard to know among those highly active online members, how many are introverts and how many are extroverts. But in an OC (or maybe should call it an online sub community) that is called INFP Forum, it is easier for us to believe that the majority of members here are composed of introverts, or people with INFP personality. Therefore, talking about online identity, the one that works for here could be concluded as a sense of self-identity combined by community belongingness and of being an individual with INFP personality seeking for emotional and informational supports in the meantime, it might also overlap with the members’ offline social identity (which is also introverts) in a great chance.
And a comparable condition would be what Ploderer had said in his article about the BodySpace, an online community for bodybuilders. Although INFP Forum is not a passion-centric social network site comparing to BodySpace, they do have similar features and functions, like providing support, information, and make the members have a definite feel of their online identity, or in other words, with a strong sense of community belongingness and self orientation. I think there is some kind of networked individualism included as well here since there are different members with different personalized profiles and preference posting different threads, and forming a variety of networks for themselves. But the difference between an user’s online identity and networked individualism is also obvious: the latter one focuses on the users’ ability or potential of forming one or several networks while the former one emphasizes on the characteristic, and self-cognition on oneself when he or she is in an online environment.
On a normal day in INFP Forum…
Sunny day #1
A new guy named “a.happy.tree” come into the INFP Forum.
He has some kind of social anxiety and depression, and had tried to suicide for more than once before. He typed a lot of words talking about his problems, and seemed to be really eager of knowing how a person like him could live happy.
I noticed that he said he had post a thread on “What Is My Type?” Forum but because of the atmosphere there made him feel uncomfortable, he deleted that thread and came here.
The thread was posted on 03-30-2011 10:18 PM, and until the last post on 04-01-2011 07:53 AM, there were 22 posts including 5 from himself. Among the 17 posts from other members, 7 are just showing friendliness while 10 are giving advices and other information. The host, at the same time, was trying to response to each post, either showing gratitude or having discussions with other members, and I think we can say he is getting what he expected from this forum: supports and information. There was also a member named “Mei” who drew my attention because of the quality and quantity of her posts. And by checking into Mei’s profile, we can know that she is always generous in giving advices to people, and had received so many appreciates from others.
Sunny day #2
From another thread called “INFP and ENFP differences” first posted by a member who is an ENFP (we can found this label under one’s user name) in the INFP Forum, there were 57 posts replying to the question regarding the key differences between these two types (INFP&ENFP) of personalities. Among the replies, 27 were coming from ENFP’s, 20 from INFP’s, 7from an ESFJ, one from an INFJ, and one from a member of uncertain personality type.
I guess this can be counted as a successful thread as well since it raised enough attentions from a number of members and had a reasonable quantity of replies. But it is interesting that even this thread is posted in the INFP Forum, the repliers are composed of more ENFPs than INFPs. Could this be due to the fact that INFPs are more introverted when there are some outsiders involved? Maybe we’ll find out.
What interested me more was that an ESFJ was involved in this thread too. First, there was only this one ESFJ replying to the thread; second, this member had posted 7 messages by himself. By checking his profile, we can see that he/she is an elite member who is very active, has lots of friends (145) in this OC, and had both been received (7954) and given (8131) many “Thanks”.
Rainy day #1
For a thread that is uncommon and with little echoes, I think the one that post by “AllorNuthin” asking for members to post their blogs on the thread could be used as an example. Unexpectedly, this thread hadn’t caught that much attention from members of this forum and had only 4 replies including 2 from the host himself. The host, who invited members to post their blogs in the thread got just one response. Since the INFP Forum is quite an active community, I would say this is not a very successful thread and my presumption is that the INFPs might prefer not to expose themselves.
Q: how is online identity shaped and expressed through interactions in this community?
A: The online identity in INFP Forum, like what is mentioned above, is a sense of identity of being an INFP personality type, discussing feelings of being an INFP, and trying to either offer or get supports or information from the INFP Forum. The interactions in this community are mostly around the topic of INFP personality.
To explain it in detail, firstly, the members are warm and friendly to newbies because they seem to have strong sense of similar-identity with each other. For INFPs, online communication might be easier than offline communication, and since social grooming is such an indispensable need for human beings, the members of INFP Forum intend to rely on the interactions here to maintain enough social ties. In general, it is like what Donath said in Signals in Social Supernets, online communication is “social grooming for the information age”, especially for introverts.
Secondly, I would propose that the INFPs prefer not to debate too much with outsiders (comparing to insiders with the label “INFP”) from the expression I got from the Sunny day #2 scene. With the label INFP showing in profile, members can get a sense of familiarity with others with the same label, and tend to communicate more with them. It reminds me of what Liu had said in Social Network Profiles as Taste Performances where users’ profile “speak to their identity” and differentiate them from others.
Thirdly, although INFPs don’t like to expose themselves, they tend to trust prestigious members. In fact, this may be applied to all type of members with different personalities. We can see this from the screen snap above and from the case when an active ESFJ named “Paranoid Android” had left many posts in a thread in the INFP Forum. In Paranoid Android profile, there are 1427 visitor’s messages not only showing gratitude to Paranoid Android, but also discussing issues, leaving questions, and even sending poems to him on his profile page.
Reference:
Wellman, Barry, Anabel Quan-Haase, Jeffrey Boase, Wenhong Chen, Keith Hampton, Isabel Isla de Diaz and Kakuko Miyata (2003). The Social Affordances of the Internet for Networked Individualism. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 8(3). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol8/issue3/wellman.html
Hodkinson, Paul (2006). Subcultural Blogging? Online Journals and Group Involvement Among UK Goths. In: A. Bruns and J. Jacobs, Uses of Blogs. New York: Peter Lang, 187-199.
http://www.paulhodkinson.co.uk/publications/hodkinsonsubculturalblogging.pdf
Donath, Judith. (2007). Signals in Social Supernets. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/donath.html
Ploderer, B., S. Howard & P. Thomas (2008). Being Online, Living Offline: The Influence of Social Ties Over the Appropriation of Social Network Sites. Proceedings of CSCW 2008.
http://disweb.dis.unimelb.edu.au/student/rhd/berndp/research/CSCW2008Ploderer.pdf
Liu, H. (2007). Social Network Profiles as Taste Performances. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 13. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/liu.html
Great look at an interesting community! You raise an interesting point when you mention the connection between trust and prestige in the INFP forum. Perceived prestige and the amount of trust people place in those with a high level of it is incredibly interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteI consider the connection between a highly trusted member like your "Paranoid Android" and other charismatic figures like celebrities and religious leaders. The human desire to align ourselves with the strong seems to express itself even in an online environment like the INFP forum.
Does the personality type itself make members more likely to attach themselves to more extroverted types?
Anyway, interesting post! Keep it up!
I agree with Gabriel, what an interesting -- and strange -- community. It's odd that there is an online commuinty based around personality types. What draws users in - I wonder? I guess it is more of the relationship type site or the common interest one but the relationships -- unlike facebook -- are not with pp users know face-to-face. Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job with your rainy & sunny days scenarios in terms of analyzing what may be going on among users ...
I feel like I learned something new from your post which is always a good thing! :)
*or should be *over in the 5th line .. sorry
ReplyDeleteI just commented on Julia's blog the other day and realized that you also covered the INFP online forums. Like I told Julia, I'm totally fascinated with Myers-Brigg. Even though it's not the most perfect personality system (if such a thing exists), many times it categorizes human nature quite accurately.
ReplyDeleteI found your Sunny Day #2 scenario interesting; ENFPs are more responsive to an ENFP post than the INFPs. Like you, I think that there might be some in-group/out-group dynamics there that prevent INFPs from fully engaging with their E counterparts.
I have known only a handful of ENFPs, and I would say that they're some of the most loving, caring, and attentive people I've ever met. I have met even less INFPs in real life, for some reason. Or if I do know them, they haven't made their MBTI types very clear to me. In real life it's easy to pin down the exact MBTI types of extroverts because they put all aspects of their personality up front and center, whereas with introverts you'd have to wait for them to express it in their art, writing, or online communities, to pin down all the letters of their type.
This answers some of my questions about Julia's blog as well, the interactions between different personality types makes this seems like less of a safe haven for INFPs and more of a place for people to explore the implications of how they view the world. In your final project, your statement that INFPs are generally less likely to expose themselves is something you could support with some observational data within the community, but from your post I'd guess that the participation of those with other personality types helps the community more than hinders it.
ReplyDeleteFor a forum whose common interest is of people of the same personality type, it seems that what one person expresses is important to delineate themselves from the other members. I agree that the interactions are very important in this aspect. The communication between members is critical when a forum of this type where the topic is maybe more personal than other social networks. I liked your sunny day scenarios, they helped me to get a better understanding of how users would use this site.
ReplyDeleteIt was good to read your observation on the INFP forum. I’m impressed by the fact that INFP types of people actively participate and contribute to the forum by sharing experiences and giving emotional support to each other. I understand that they seek similar personalities, which motivates them to participate more. Even offline, I get along with people who share similar interests and have a personality similar to mine. Like you said, we don’t really know whether the INFP users are really introverts in real life because I have seen many people who are active extroverts online and found them to be very introverts offline. A possible reason for more replies from ENFPs than INFPs may be the fact that the INFP type is so rare—even though the forum is an INFP forum. Or I guess people who reveal themselves as ENFP on the profile are actually INFP but pretend to have a different identity online.
ReplyDeletewhat an interesting forum! and based on the comments, another person/Julia is also covering this forum.
ReplyDeleteim just thinking that constant interaction in this INFP forum could actually change an INFP person to become more of an extrovert or perhaps changed one or several of their other characteristics. then again, those changes could be seen in both online and offline or just limited to one or the other.
@GabrielW, Chris: Thanks for bringing up that interesting question, I will consider that in further research, does introverted types intend to attach themselves to extroverted types online? Maybe since they are too shy to express themselves in the real-world; or maybe not since people's online behavior are quite the same as their offline behavior... And Chris, I kinda agree with your point that this forum that based on ones personality type is somehow like a forum that based on ones common interests, interesting!
ReplyDelete@Nana: Thanks for providing such useful information for Julia and me. However, like you said, it is true that no matter online or offline, it is harder to detect the personality of an introverted type person, and even there is a label attached to each member, sometimes mistakes could happen.
@Dr. Gazan: I am quite surprised when I found the sunny day scenario #2 too, but the fact that members with other personality types are involved in an INFP forum may give us a clue about how introverts will interact with other personality types in an virtual environment. Like in this case, when they are exposed to the outsiders, they tend to be more shy.
@Song: That's what I'm worrying about! Are members with the label "INFP" really introverts, and "ENFP" really extroverts? There might be mistakes when they are taking the personality test, or they might be pretending for fun, or for a different experience from they offline life. These errors might confused us when we are doing researches about introverts' online behavior, but do raise a good question of why will introverts pretend extroverts online, because of the characteristics of online communication? Maybe.
@Erenst: Thanks for pointing this out, I think I have read an article talking about how online communication can help people recovered from depression, just like what you said, these changes could be seen both from their online and offline activities.