Time Is Just A Melody

Real Life, Cyber Space

A look through anothers eyes

learn, be freinds, connect

A persons image on the visual world is easily transformable and can be made fictional or nonfictional depending on the persons desires. Lets start with a point brought up by Boyd in “Surveillance and Society”, “social norms—when contextually understood—highlight how privacy and surveillance are both being challenged by an increasingly networked society” (1). People are opening up their lives for others to observe, understand, and keep tabs on. Still, the real life social norms are to maintain a positive image of ones self but when it comes to a networked society, the line of positive and negative is diminishing due to people promoting too much self, positively, negatively, or falsely.  Take a look at the falsities in facebook birthdays. When creating three birthdays and people still do not realize they are sending you wishes each time but still are says something. First of all, the facebooker is portray a non-realistic birthday and fooling others but the wishers are writing for people they a) don’t know and b) keep tabs on but not enough to realize they are a liar. Never the less, the cyber world is flourishing with connections and information. Looking at Nakamura’s and Gray’s articles, we can see how online forums can be very helpful. Gray is focusing more on the LGTBS communities and allowing for people to connect outside of their real life communities where it is harder for them to come out of the closet. As for Nakamura, the pregnant or TTC communities are able to connect, make avatars, and find helpful information from each other that is not so easily understood in only the real life setting. So to tie everything together, look at Parks’ “Making Friends in Cyberspace” , this states that “most people say cyberspace is simply another place to meet” but then goes on to say “if cyberspace is becoming just another place to meet, we must rethink our image of the relationships formed there as being somehow removed and exotic”. Perhaps cyberspace is just another community, but it has a lot to offer in its own little world. 

Who has that power?

Just be who you want to be!

I am who I am.

When being introduced to Second Life I had one thought going through my mind over and over…”this is the matrix coming to reality!” it was pretty scary to think that people have these avatars which have become their virtual selves! Jarmon mentioned the importance of interactivity, connectivity, and access as the key elements to the online world. Taking these words and analysing each one has had me comparing it to what is important in the actual real life world. Goffman discussed expressiveness, the importance of an encounter, the value of face to face, and performances. Being this was written in 1959, when computers and the digital world did not exist, its easy to see that these qualities should be added to the ones Jarmon was describing as they are essential to a relationship, whether virtual or actual. And lets face it, when joining the virtual world, we are ot avoiding contact with others, we are hoping to engage and form new relationships based on the new identities created. Just like Mendelson and Papacharissi describe the importance of a facebook photo for an identity, if you look at it, your avatar needs to be the “you” you want to portray. Our self presentation depends on how people view us, how we can be perceived. Its easy to pick and choose digital identities because they can be censored, show the you you want to show. Identities, self representation, and avatars all go hand in hand when being who you want to be in this new world, whether second life, world of warcraft, facebook, or even a blog. You are who you portray…but who says you need to only be one person? A person can have many identities virtually. A person can have multiple avatars and represent themselves in any way they want. Its amazing how far one can go.