The college decision process is a daunting task for any high school senior. The year moves so quickly and you graduate before you know it. Spending your time researching schools and visiting them before the deadline, there isn’t much time for waiting around. Once you finally make your decision of where to attend, the only thing you can do is wait. Of course the most important thing to hear from your college of choice is your roommate for the next year.

            After having my own room for my whole life, the idea of living in a small dorm room with a stranger made me nervous. Once I heard all the roommate horror stories from adults, I was expecting the worst. Dreading the thought of being enclosed in a small space with a stranger, I was pleasantly surprised to find out my roommate was a good guy. A few of my hall mates, on the other hand, were a different story. They had a complete lack of regard for everything and everyone.

These two roommates are what you would call low self-monitors. Low self-monitors are, “People who are not sensitive to appropriateness or resist adapting their behavior. (McCornack, 2010)” Meaning, no regard is shown to proper behavior in certain situations. For starters, they both woke up at 5am every morning and would go to sleep at 8pm every night. From the moment they woke up at 5am they were as loud as physically possible, blasting music and slamming doors, as they were getting ready to start their day. It made it hard to sleep because the walls were of a similar quality to cardboard. When the rest of us would hang out together and talk after class around 9 or 10 pm, all hell would break loose. These hall mates would come out screaming about lack of respect for other people trying to sleep, while they were doing much worse in the mornings. When someone tried to explain that to them, their behavior was only made worse out of spite.

            On those rare occasions when they were being “friendly” and came out to talk to us, they found plenty of time to show off. They would talk about how good they were in sports in high school or their intelligence level. They seemed to have a “scientific explanation” for everything in the world. If you asked how they knew all of this, in response, you would hear something along the lines of, “because I know.” Those statements are known as superiority messages. They can be defined as, “Defensive responses that claim special knowledge, ability, or status above the other persons.' “ The term fits the bill for my two hall mates from hell.

They were defensive, low self-monitors who had a complete lack of respect for everyone else they were sharing close living quarters with.

Have you ever dealt with low self-monitors who have made things troubling for you? How?