What is in your mind
Feel free to write this week about what you're thinking about Wallace or Dery. Or Wallace AND Dery. I'll use your thoughts to interweave with the material for class on Monday.
Here's some stuff I've been thinking about, if you want a prompt to work with to get you going:
--Dery's culture of cyberspace is dark and dangerous. I wonder how much of Dery's population dominate the Internet. Is Dery's focus of study a large percentage of online life that I'm missing, or is it a fringe group that appeals to Dery in some way?
-- Wallace's findings intrigue me, especially the online behaviors people take on. In my professional dealings with listservs, most of the time people are far more collegial and friendly on line than they might be during the day. I have some theories about this, but I wondered if you all might have encountered similar experiences in your own dealings with professors and such in online vs. F2F (face to face) situations. And if so, why do you think there is a difference?
Anyway, feel free to post what you like: good, bad, or indifferent. I want to take up your views when we cover this material on Monday. Remember, there is no penalty for expressing what is in your mind....
Here's some stuff I've been thinking about, if you want a prompt to work with to get you going:
--Dery's culture of cyberspace is dark and dangerous. I wonder how much of Dery's population dominate the Internet. Is Dery's focus of study a large percentage of online life that I'm missing, or is it a fringe group that appeals to Dery in some way?
-- Wallace's findings intrigue me, especially the online behaviors people take on. In my professional dealings with listservs, most of the time people are far more collegial and friendly on line than they might be during the day. I have some theories about this, but I wondered if you all might have encountered similar experiences in your own dealings with professors and such in online vs. F2F (face to face) situations. And if so, why do you think there is a difference?
Anyway, feel free to post what you like: good, bad, or indifferent. I want to take up your views when we cover this material on Monday. Remember, there is no penalty for expressing what is in your mind....
posted by Diane Penrod at 2/05/2005
4 Comments:
I have a quite a bit of experience of online personas vs. real life. I used to chat in the south jersey chart room on AOL back in 1994ish. after chatting with the same people night after night with scattered newbies coming through they decided to have a party in real life. For the majority of the people thay acted the same way that they were online. There were very few that seemed different in person.
I was very interested in reading about cyber love and dating because I had met someone online that I clicked with. It seemed to me at the time that you could be more uninhibited online and since you weren't facing the person you could say anything that you wanted. It made it easier for me to let this person get to know the real me that no one had been able to before. The drawback is just because you are honest with someone online it doesn't mean that they are being honest with you. As in Wallace's book she mentions that people chatting over the internet were less likely to feel like they have to agree with the person they are chatting with and the other person would never be any wiseer.
I agree with some of the others who said that Dery just focused on the negative in regards to the internet. When I was younger I meet some people online but was never really interested in keeping in touch with anyone I meet. The only reason I talked to people on the internet I did not know was because we had similar interests in music. It really creeps me out that someone can completely change who they are when they are talking to people online, but as long as others are aware of that I do not feel it can do too much harm. People have to realize that it is very possible everything they are talking about can be made up. I think maybe people have let internet relationships become their main relationships and that could get the person in trouble.
AS i was talking about in class before, i play online games during my boring times.....And sometimes im amazed how into the character people get. But at the same time in understand. You can be anyone online. There is no social class. Your imagination is the limit. Online i have spoken to people from all over the world. Some that without chat rooms and the internet i would have never been able to accomplish. I know that at time caution must be taken, but at the same time the same thing can be said if you met some one at the bar or a club.
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