Friday, March 16, 2007

Questions for Monday, March 19th

You know the drill. Read S2:U2 and post one (1) interpretive question by 11:59 Sunday the 18th.

Just one.

18 comments:

Katie's Page said...

On page 103 in the bookit talks about how much information you should give out to form an identity online.

How much information should you give about yourself when forming an identity? How can yout tell if someone's identity is truthful?

Jill Carle said...

On page 98 of the book, it talks about how some people's identities are shaped or viewed on TV, in magazines, in music, etc. One very blatant example of this is the show "Identity" where a contestant guesses what a person does solely based upon appearance. The views perceived by the media can obviously be different than how the person sees themselves in real life.

Does the media change how we see our own identity? And how does the view others have of us affect how we perceive ourselves online versus FtF communication? Is it also possible that the media bases their perceptions of a certain group on how they present themselves online, FtF, or both?

Rachel B. said...

The book discusses the idea of identity play on page 100: "pretending to be someone else or just portraying different aspects of yourself." On page 101, the book addresses this concept in more detail, suggesting that the point of identity play is "to have fun and play around. It's a game!" However, isn't there a point when identity play crosses a line and doesn't become much fun for the people being deceived? To some extent, doesn't identity play violate the ethics rules outlined in S1:U1? As far as identity play is concerned, how far is too far before people get hurt?

Anonymous said...

The book talks about disembodiment when talking on the internet. What are the differences in peoples personalities online and offline and do these personalities affect eachother?

Tom B.

Rachael said...

In the book, pages 103-104 talks about the Johari Window and how it can show how we present ourselves in communication. Particularly, I thought the description of Quadrant Three (Closed) was pretty interesting. Quadrant Three states that people with large Closed areas are more likely to be good listeners and people with small Closed areas are more likely to be outspoken. I tried to think of myself in this area: do I have a large or small Closed area?




What about you? Do you feel that when presenting yourself to others in communication you have a large Closed area and you listen well? Or do you have a small Closed area where you talk about yourself more and are more outspoken about things? Or do you have a mixture of both? Do you think how you present yourself in communication is different from how people perceive you?

Unknown said...

On pages 103-104 there is a very detailed system that explains different ways in which a person presents themselves. The system is called the Johari Window, and it really caught my interest. I found that everyone’s window is different, and that the window can be ever changing. http://www.noogenesis.com/game_theory/johari/johari_window.html discusses each quadrant in detail, and states that the panes of the window move as interaction between people changes.

I realized that your FtF identity and your CMC identity can differ greatly, even if you do not mean to do it on purpose.

Although questions about online and in person identities arise. Which identity gives more information about a person? In which location are the quadrants that are known to others larger?

At first I thought that an online identity would be more private, because online faces are never seen and it can be much easier to lie about yourself. However, I then realized that people online are sometimes more comfortable expressing their opinions and information. Our book states that CMC users often blur the lines between what is public and what is private.

Are you more public with your CMC identity or with your FtF identity? Is it better to be more public using CMC or FtF? Which is a safer place to disclose more information? Where are you more comfortable disclosing personal information? How do you feel when others disclose large amounts of personal information? Would you rather find things out about a person through CMC or FtF communication?

Jamie Rae said...

On page 100, there is a cartoon of two dogs sitting at a computer. The caption reads, "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog." Although this is only a comic, it made me start thinking about just how distorted people can make their online identities. Obviously this can produce great problems when predators present themselves as different people to lure others to them. I wonder though, if there's not a way to really know who someone is online, how do you know if information online is misrepresented, too? A lot of times, I assume that what I read online is correct, especially if the website seems ligit. What if someone poses as a person with more knowledge than they really have? Can fake identities online ever interfere with information online, too?

Anonymous said...

Along with thousands of other people I recently got "Myspace". I set my site to private so that only people that are my friends can look at my profile. However I do have a profile picture up and anyone can look at that. Today I had some guy I don't know message me and say something along the lines that he liked my picture and wanted to chat. (EWW!!)

Anyways when I was reading this chapter, especially page 99-100 I thought of this instance. The book talks about online identities versus "real-life" identities and how "Nobody knows you're a dog in cyberspace". For all this random guy knows I could be a 60 year old male. As the book says the internet allows for "identity play".

Do you think that identity play is a completely deceitful aspect of the internet? Or could identity play be put to good use in some cases? Do you think a lot of people are somewhat deceitful through use of the internet?

Anonymous said...

Oops!
Previous post by Melissa Hennen

David G's blog said...

on page 100 in the book, there is a cartoon ofr two dogs sitting at a computer. The one dog says to the other, "on the internet, nobody knows youre a dog." And this to me made me think of all the problems lately with online predators. And i know the Jill touched on this topic a little bit earlier, dealing finding out who it is you are talking to, however my question is, what steps will be made in reducing online predators? i know there are stings set up by police to catch the criminal in the act, but that seems to me like a very slow solution. Can anything be done to help people from being "stalked" by predators, beore it happens?

-david g

Brittany Donegan said...

In this unit, the book discusses identity, which can be somewhat difficult to establish through CMC. A person's identity can be portrayed completely differently online opposed to in person. You may think you know someone, but they could be someone completely different. Keeping this in mind, do you think that CMC is a completely affective tool when trying to communicate with others that you have never met before? what may be some advantages or disadvantages of online identities then dealing with online dating?

Nycee said...

On page 96 they discuss identity. What is Identity? That s a very good question because identity can be described as many different things. In the book they start off by answering that question with another question Who am I? So in answering that question people must consider these things: what they think about themselves, what stories they tell other people about themselves, and other people also have a say so in your identity. With that being said identity is very important becuase you don't want to have a bad reputation. This brings me to my question what do you think foreigners think about us as Americans? As Americans we are identified by certain things we do or our different cultures and we obviously have our own opinions on what we think about foreigners because of the things we hear.

Anonymous said...

On page 100 of our book, the authors discuss the topic of identity play which is pretending to be someone else or just portraying different aspects of yourself. I agree with the authors when they talk about how it is easier for some people to basically pretend they're something they really aren't (gender, race, age, sexuality, etc.) Identity play can also be related to anonymity which we talked about earlier in the semester.

Do you think identity play plays a big role in anonymity?
How do we ever really know who we're communicating with if these personal elements can be so easily deceived?

-Christina

Leah's Blog said...

Page 98 discusses the idea of technologies of self. There are many websites and message boards out there that allow people to express themselves. We use our blogs for this class to discuss and express our feelings about ideas and topics pertaining to this class. In your opinion do you believe that technologies of self truly help people define themselves to others and discover who they are? How do you think technologies of self may be viewed as negative or positive? Lastly, do you think that the use of websites, chat rooms, etc. in order to find identity and express oneself will continue to grow?

Shauna said...

Pages 104 and 105 talk about online and offline identity. Do you agree with the statement on page 105 that says "online identities are somehow not real in spite of their being both meaningful and important to people"? Also do you think people can change their offline identity or how they appear to people just as much as they can their online identity?

Unknown said...

On page 99 diembodiment is introduced and described as an identity that is no longer dependent on, or constrained by, your physical appearance. People are able to go online and develop relationships without assumptions being made from physical appearance or the way you may speak in public. this has alot to do with anonimity and I once again wonder this: If you are developing a relationship online and you never reveal to another person that you may be overweight or handicapped in some manner, couldnt this cause problems in the future? IF you finally meet for FtF communiation and he/she sees that you failed to reveal something about yourself, does this cause a lack of trust from there on? Anonimity is great as is disembodiment but can it also cause problems?

-Chris

Anonymous said...

Identity has occupied the same definition since the origins of words. Recently however, page 97 explains a paradigm shift in which identity has been re-evaluated because of changes and advancements due to CMC and the new virtual identity. This caused a slight tweaking in how the word identity is perceived. As the authors explain... if there should be no differences between on and offline identity--distinguish why identity doesn't quite mean the same as it used to.


--pamela

Ashley C. said...

On page 100 there's a little comic about two dogs and a computer. The tag line to the comic is "On the Internet, nobody knows your a dog."

It's true. You don't really know who you are talking to online. People can use identity play and pretend to be whomever they want to. I think that there are pros and cons to this issue. Take disembodiment into consideration, that is a good thing for certain people. They can finally feel free to be themselves and not give into peer pressure or discrimination. On page 99 of our book it describes how can completley "redefine" yourself.

One major negative aspects that stands out to me is the issue of predators online. These people use identity play in a very dangerous way. So do the pro's out weigh the con's? Is identity play dangerous?