Saturday, February 9, 2008
fakes and reality
I believe strongly now that people create social identity’s that are false over the internet. A lot of times this is done to try to pretend you’re someone your not, but also I’ve come to realize that sometimes people do it as a means of humor. In relation to our class discussion about social identity, I watched some of my friends chatting online and pretending they were older men the other night. I never knew they had these secret chat identities. They pretend that they are women and chat with guys. It’s really funny because they have these really x-rated chats, just because these guys think they’re girls. However, this made me wonder of perhaps these guys that are chatting with them are only pretending to be guys. Maybe they are in on their own joke, and are playing around with my friends. Can we really trust any type of supposed identity if we aren’t talking to someone in person? Is it possible to display your true feelings and emotions over the internet or some other means of communication? This experience has made me really stop and wonder how many facebook profiles, myspace profiles, and whatnot really display peoples likes and dislikes. Maybe it is all just pretend.
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2 comments:
Trust is a big issue. In that book I reviewed, The Wisdom of Crowds, the author talked a bit about how we tend to trust each other, until something happens to take away that trust. If Nicole hadn't offered to share the Mike & Ike's, we may not have trusted her afterwards ... that was such a little thing, but we rely on people to share and to share equally, and we trust that people in the middle turn lane of Columbia streets aren't going to pull out in front of us, and we trust that others are leaving tips for waitresses to insure wonderful service, and we will trust the info on MySpace and Facebook until someone gets hurt. Right now, that pretending is what I imagine goes on in bars when you're trying to pick up someone, or in interviews for jobs, where you put on a persona that will best serve your purpose. It's harmless ... until your new boss finds out that you were fired from your last job and the girl you pick up in a bar turns out to be a guy ... until someone gets hurt, then we'll all be wary.
It's funny how we can start to question whether or not we trust people on facebook, myspace, etc. It's a valid point though, especially since you see some of your own friends "acting."
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