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Week 7: Online Culture

This week readings are about a specific idea of different “online cultures”.  The Internet is a broad place and has a “spot” for everyone pretty much.  There are so many different types of online cultures and norms.  Regardless of your race, hobbies, culture, anything there is something for you to be a part of online.  In Boyd’s reading one topic that stuck out to me was the merge from MySpace to Facebook.  This part stood out to me the most because I agree with how it was called “ghetto”.  Boyd states, “The notion that MySpace may be understood as a digital ghetto introduces an analytic opportunity to explore the divisions between MySpace and Facebook…” (4) Obviously there was more to explore than just people saying “okay MySpace is ghetto I’m gonna move to Facebook” and that’s exactly what Boyd wants to accomplish.  In Sydell’s article she discuses a totally different culture of the Internet.  The online gaming world is a totally different ball game from the social media world.  I feel as if they have similar qualities in a sense of communicating via instant message or AIM, but other than that they are different.  They are two completely different concepts.  One is working towards a goal, completing levels, unlocking things and beating the game.  Another is just posting your life on line via statuses pictures and such.  Online gaming is just as much of a moneymaker as social media is.  In her article Sydell states, “Online computer games are an over-$300 million industry and growing. World of Warcraft, or WOW, is a massively multiplayer online game, or MMOG, that has more than four million registered users.”  Each culture online creates its own audience and users.  In my opinion all aspects of the Internet are popular, and your culture will reflect on what part of the Internet you most use. 

 

Week 8: Online Community

In my opinion the idea of an online community can be helpful and hurtful, it just depends on the situation.  There are many different kinds of online communities; there is a place for everyone.  I think that if you are in a positive environment online it is possible to form friendships and be beneficial to your life.  It can be used as a mean of support.  In Baym’s article, Communities and Networks, it is stated “Most online groups are not so tied to geographical space, yet people who are involved in online groups think of them as shared places.” (75) The people involved in these places all feel a sense of closeness to one another because they are sharing ideas and thoughts.  Possibly thoughts that they feel cannot be shared anywhere else.  To me, this is a helpful type of an online environment. You are creating a bond with others who have similar interests as you.  On the other hand, in McCabe’s article, Resisting Alienation, he confirms the idea of comfort by saying, “Individuals with eating disorders feel safe and comfortable in places where the outside world cannot intrude on their behaviors.”  (7) This is an unhealthy type of online environment because no body is reprimanding these people with these disorders.  They may realize that what they are doing is wrong but no one is stopping them, or helping them.  They are all in this group together for support from each other, because they are all doing the same thing and they all view themselves in the same way.  I feel as if this is extremely unhealthy because they are not gaining any help and will just continue to get worse. 

 As for online and offline communication I feel as if it depends on what kind of group they are in.  The eating disorder community I feel would be more comfortable stating their issues online because they are hiding behind a computer screen, they are not forced to discuss any issues in person with anyone.  With other communities it is possible for them to meet online and offline, depending on what kind of community.

 

Week 9: Virtual Ethnography

 If you plan on doing research on an online community you must first become familiar with the community.  I feel as if you have to have some knowledge about the community you are in before going there, this is how you will know what questions to ask that wont offend anyone and will be appropriate.  Once you gain enough basic knowledge about the community it will be much easier for you to develop more in depth questions that will help you further your research.  One tactic that Denise Carter used was asking the people in the community to fill out questionnaires.  Then she states, “In addition to the questionnaires I asked 22 of the inhabitants to write me short stories or monologues about their personal relationships in Cybercity, thus simulating an open-ended interview process.” (151) By asking these open ended questions this gave room to receive more answers and research, as opposed to a question that can only be answered with one word.  Once you continue to keep going back to the same community, this will build credibility and make the users trust you more, which will make it easier for you to receive more fulfilling answers.

love and romance in second life

Before this class I really had no knowledge of second life at all.  The only thing that I ever heard about it was from an episode of Law and Order.  After being in this class for almost an entire semester the one article I will never forget was when a man killed his second life wifes “affair” because he was so upset about it.  Even thought he was married and had a real family in real life.  The only time that I encountered anything sexual on second life was in the begining when I was creating my avatar.  I thought it was strange that you could purchase body parts for your avatar, then I realized why they allowed this.  I got the impression that sex was a big part of the virtual world but I personally did not interact with it on my field trips.  All of the other avatars that I interacted with seemed mostly to themselves.  Granted the places that I went to would not have been the time and place to act promiscuous

I think the virtual world is the easiest place for homosexuals to communicate because there is no room for judgement, and they know they can find their own “community” here in this world.  This leaves little to no room for judgement or harrassment becuase you are with others who are the same as you.  Unfortunately this is what some people must resort to because they are so uncomfortable and others are mean.  Even in Brookley’s article he states the same thing, “Unfortunately, this theoretical perspective does not account for those who use their agency to reproduce the traditional roles and norms found in real life.”  Some people are so uncomfortable being themselves in the real world that they turn to this virtual reality to feel a sense of comfort and to feel loved. 

economics and work

This week each article discusses businesses online and how they work.  In Edward Castronova’s article, Virtual Worlds he talks about how the virtual world and games make a profit.  “Almost one million people have active accounts in Virtual Worlds.  At a time when many ecommerce concerns are going under, revenues from on-line gaming will grow over $1.5 billion in 2004.”  (Castronova 2)  The fact that the more people have accounts on these games will clearly increase the profits that are brought in within this company.  In the second article Life of a Chinese Gold Farmer Appended tells us about a man who lives in China was literally sits in a cubicle and just plays virtual games all day, which he gets paid for.   “At the end of each shift, Li reports the night’s haul to his supervisor, and at the end of the week, he, like his nine co-workers, will be paid in full. For every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less.”  I feel as if with this job there is a potential realm for exploitation because of how little money they are making and how long they are playing these games for.  It is not good for you physically or emotionally to be starting at a computer screen for that amount of time.  I enjoyed the last article “How Meeting in Second Life Transformed IBM’s Technology Elite into Virtual World Believers”; I almost wish I were able to attend the event that they talk about.  They are talking about the event that was planned which also taught users different tips in second life.

privacy disclosure lying

After finishing this week’s reading assignments I was amazed by the impact technology has on our lives today, specifically concerning our personal lives. The first thought that came to mind was the MTV show Catfish, for sure. I compared this to the article the Lying Game because Beth completely lied about her disease for a long time, which is exactly what the show catfish is about. Strangers go as far as communicating for years, in a cyber-relationship, disguising their true identities and communicating only through the wire for extensive periods of time. Also mind-blowing, is the common debate about the government intervening too closely with our lives, yet everyone puts every detail of their day, personal lives, and thoughts on various sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. We also trust websites with our credit card information, with security codes, as well as our whereabouts, and family and health histories. Many see this as a security concern, however surveillance can also be seen as a benefit. Cameras everywhere help us identify who hit our car, or how an accident occurred, as security questions and personal pins keep our electronics safe, and our bank accounts secured. On a smaller scale, if we use the internet and social networking sites for what they’re intended for, to connect to people, we would not have to be so concerned with details, as long as nothing too personal is displayed.

Hey, its me

In today’s society meeting people online or online dating has become more than socially acceptable. Dating websites and Facebook are being used more and more to meet a romantic partner. The major downfall of these websites is that it is much easier to portray yourself online as someone you are not. In Ellison, Heino and Gibbs article, Managing Impressions Online they state, “A commonly accepted understanding of identity presumes that there are multiple aspects of the self which are expressed or made salient in different contexts. Higgins argues there are three domains of the self: the actual self (attributes an individual possesses), the ideal self (attributes an individual would ideally possess), and the ought self (attributes an individual ought to possess); discrepancies between one’s actual and ideal self are linked to feelings of dejection.“ (418) There are three ways to describe the “self” but because anything goes in the virtual world most people portray themselves as the “ideal self”, or someone that they wish they were. Hybrid identities are less accurate in my opinion because they can easily alter the person they really are and can come off attractive to other people who they normally wouldn’t attract. Facebook profiles are the perfect example of this. They give us the opportunity to show off or to be someone who we want to be because we chose everything that goes on it. We can “like” certain music or hobbies that we may not actually enjoy in real life, or we can post photos that could be edited or that may not even actually be you. There are many ways to alter your appearance online. Personally when I am looking at someone’s Facebook profile I go right to their “tagged photos”. Tagged photos are pictures that other people put up of the person, granted they can be untagged and removed from the person profile but these photos are the ones that are not “perfect”. At least when I am choosing a “default picture” I know that I can edit it and make it look better than it is, but with the tagged photos they are left as is. In Mendelson and Papacharissi’s article Look at Us they state, “Similarly, the manner in which college students portray themselves and tag others through photographs on Facebook is a contemporary means of introducing the self and performing one’s identity.” (251) In another sense, the tagged photos portray who the person “actually” is, and the default pictures portray how the person “wants” to look. For example, maybe in their default pictures they don’t show themselves drinking, but in their tagged photos they may be a crazy party animal. I think our version of self-representation changes when we have too, because you wouldn’t act the way you would with your friends at a party, in class with your professor. The same goes for if your going on a date with someone you met online, you would be sure to act the way that you portrayed yourself in your online profile, at least for the first few times of meeting this person.

virtual gaming

The Internet is a a constantly growing epidemic in our time. The Internet can be used to connect individuals for multiple reasons, mainly leisure and work. Some people use the Internet mainly for social media, such as facebook, instagram, twitter, pinterest and websites like that to stay connected with others. Recently the Internet has expanded the “gaming world” because now people can play video games with one another at any place or time. Instead of only being able to play with multiple people if you were in the same room now you can play on the Internet with people from all over the world. There are a ton of differnet ways to conect with people who have similar interests to you, this blog for example is a way for everyone in this class to share there thoughts and ideas for everyone to see. Blogs is just one example for people to stay connected within similar interests. I personally am not interested in online gaming but just from this class alone I have realized how serious it is and how much people actually get into it. Before this class I really had no idea how big it was. I’ll never forget the one article we read about the guy killing someone in real life because in second life his wife cheated on him. It blows my mind how into these games and virtual worlds some people get. I feel as if because you can connect and communicate with others like this online it has set a certain tone for the rest of the gaming world.

virtual contexts

Is technology becoming completely overwhelming in today’s society? Technology and social media are being compared to drugs and alcohol abuse as an “addiction”. Even before this weeks articles, I definitely did agree with the fact that technology and social media becoming an addiction for some people. After reading these articles I more so agree than before that the Internet is potentially spiraling into an addiction for some. In Bloomfield’s article he discusses the virtual game second life. Various contexts exist in the online world, especially with second life. This game is being used for entertainment but he also discusses how it is being studied for real world business. “Some contributors seek profit, many enjoy creation- the phenomenon known as “Tom Sawyer” effect after Tom’s ability to convince his friends that whitewashing a fence is fun, not work” (Bloomfield 2) With this phenomenon, many users are using second life to create another world and to literally have a second life, so it is being used from an entertainment standpoint. Some other users are using it as a way to try and make a profit. In part one of Portwood-Stacer’s article he states that “The 71 million hits returned when Googling “facebook addiction” suggest that there is something of a moral panic going around about people’s practice of facebook use.” (Part 1) Google brought back this many hits of people addicted to facebook, this goes to show how many people actually are limiting their use of facebook. This is a contributing factor to how we think of technology and social media. That many people are considered to be “addicted” so it makes it seem that almost everyone actually is addicted, which sets the mood for the less tech savvy Internet users who do not use social media and the Internet as much. "The practice of reducing ones media intake is often compared to going on a diet." (Portweed-Stacer Part 2) People have become that addicted to this "thing" called the Internet that it is being compared to something as real as a diet, because that's how hard it is for some people to live without it.

avatars and self representation

Physical appearance is an aspect that is important to many people in today’s society.  It is becoming more imperative to look “perfect” at all times.  There are plenty of ways to enhance your physical appearance, for both males and females.  You can purchase hair products, makeup, different clothes, jewelry; you can even go as far as getting surgery to change features you don’t like.  Physical appearance definitely influences interaction with others and reinforcement of personal identity.  It influences interaction with others because people are more likely to talk to someone as attractive as themselves and be nicer to this particular person based on their level of attractiveness.  In Yee and Bailenson’s article they discuss a study that was done with undergraduate students speaking to one another over the telephone.  It was proven that males talking to females who sounded more attractive, acted nicer and more charming to these females as opposed to ones who sounded less attractive.  This proves that physical appearance plays a part in interaction with others.

The elements of personal representation that are missing from online interaction are personal cues and expressions that can be given off during face-to-face interaction.  When interacting with someone in person multiple other factors come into play besides just the topic of the conversation.  The tone of voice, hand gestures, and eye contact all contribute to the conversation.  All of these factors are important during interaction because it helps to set the tone and mood of the conversation.  These factors can be extremely hard, if not impossible to portray online with an avatar.  You may type one thing online and mean it a certain way but the person on the other end who is receiving the message may think you mean something totally different.  Another important element missing from online interaction is that the avatar you may be communicating with can be a totally different person in the real world.  You may be getting the impression that the person you are talking to is someone who they aren’t in real life.

The virtual interaction influences how individuals respond to one another similarly to how we respond to each other in the real world.  If you are communicating with an avatar that is more attractive you are more likely to be more friendly and social to this avatar as opposed to one that is not attractive.