Internet Community Assignment July 25, 2008

Assignment: Join an internet community for at least two weeks (you should join the community early in the term). This can be a discussion group, listserv, or other virtual community. However, social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook don’t count. This group should be outside the university setting and should be a group new to you. You can find such a group by typing in a subject you’re interested in followed by discussion board. For example, “Pittsburgh Penguin discussion board.” Discuss how you assimilate into the group. How are you accepted and how do you know you are accepted? How are agreements and disagreements expressed and resolved.

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For this assignment I joined the BSG (Battlestar Galactica) internet community.  I was a really big fan of the show and thought that it would be interesting talking to other people about it.  Joining this type of group was new to me because I have only been a part of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

 

At first I had to become a member so that I could contribute to the forums and discussions.  Secondarily, I had to learn to navigate the hundreds of threads posted to figure out which ones I wanted to ‘grace with my presence.’  I decided to stick to contributing to two of the thread topics so that I could observe all the small nuances in great detail. 

The first thing I learned from joining this forum was that people in this community EXPECT you to post to the correct thread.  For instance, one of my discussion topics was about the last episode of BSG.  All appropriate posts must focus on this one idea.  If I was to post a thread about Kara and Lee’s relationship (two of the shows main characters) I would get chided by this community and then I would get “BUMPED.” That is a cue to move this topic to the right discussion thread.  I was amazed at how I felt after being bumped…I actually felt hurt.  This could be what Wood and Smith define the word flaming, “as a message that is intended to be and/or interpreted to be hostile in nature,” (91).  I definitely took it as hostile and wanted to ‘bump’ someone back. Haha. It was interesting to think about why I felt this way…I mean after all this was just a social/academic experiment.  Looking back it is funny, but it was not at the time it happened.  In this case I guess I did not feel fully accepted. 

 I felt accepted by this group when they validated my theories on the show or when someone took the time to reply to my post in a positive way.  This did not mean that they necessarily agreed with everything I had to say, but the fact that they responded help me to feel a part of the group at large. 

For the most part it seemed as though people were civil to each other. I have seen other forums and chat rooms where there are curse words flying back and forth, but this seemed to be more thought through.  Maybe it is because the site is monitored, or maybe it is because most of the people taking part in the discussion are older??  I do not know this for certain. 

I learned that people really invest a lot of time in giving their opinions.  My question going in to this particular assignment was why would people want to join a ‘virtual’ community.  I learned that it is easier to connect with a lot of people who share a similar interests.  I wonder however if these virtual communities take the place of ‘real-life’ community.  Society wants to be heard, that is what I learned through this.  Maybe we do not have a lot of people listening to us in our homes, places of work, school…maybe we feel people in our lives do not take real interest in our passions so we join a community like the BSG forum to be heard.  Anyways, this was a good assignment and I am actually thinking about staying connected to my “community.”

Snail Mail vs Email July 18, 2008

Assignment:

Choose two people that have had an influence on you. Write a letter to each thanking them for their contributions to your life (this should be done either early in the week or late in the previous week to see if you get a response). Write one in long-hand (you know, pen, paper, stamp, that kind of thing) and one via email. Think and write about how you chose which one to send the message via snail mail and which via email. Also, write about the differences in the language, length, tone, etc. Are there any differences? What kind of responses to you get?

The Choice: This was a very thought provoking assignment.  The two people I chose to write to regarding their influence on my life were my long-time friend Ashley and my former boss Angel Warrior.  I chose to send Ashley the email, because she is younger and would be the most okay with receiving the letter in this format.  In regards to Angel, there is a difference in age, level of position/respect, and culture (she is from India).  This is why I chose to send her a letter that was written in long-hand.  I wanted to respect her culture and she was my boss, so there is that authority level too. 

Language Usage, Length, Tone: My email letter to Ashley was longer than my hand-written letter to Angel.  Mostly because I type faster than I write, and I had not written a letter in long-hand for such a long time that my had actually ached from attempting this. This is sad I know.  The language in my email was much more colloquial and common, most likely due to the fact that Ashley is my age and Angel probably would not have understood some of the phrases I used.  My language usage in the long-hand letter was much more ‘professional.’ I would have used similar language style if I were writing to someone of great importance.  My tone in my email to Ashley was fun, jovial, respectful but to the point of regal.  My tone with Angel was serious, respectful, and kind. 

Responses:  My email was responded to very quickly. In fact, I think the very next day I received an email back from Ashley with a very similar tone and language style as the one I had sent her.  I have not received a letter back from Angel, and I am not even sure she received it…I guess that is the anticipation and surprise of using the “real” mail service.

I like how Wood and Smith said that, “in order to manage our relationships effectively, competent communicators need to attend to some issues that are even more salient in online relationships than in real-life relationships,” (90).  For me this really caused me to think at length about what I wrote online to Ashley and also to Angel.  I wanted to clearly articulate what I wanted to say, but that was hard in the construction of both letters.

What does this all mean for society? I think society now is much more likely to write an email than send a hand-written letter.  This seems rather impersonal to me.  If we are going to write emails, we need to make very sure that we are choosing the exact right terms to most effectively communicate how we feel.  Otherwise a person could be left confused and hurt.  It is just so incredibly important to understand that our words are powerful and when you don’t choose them wisely, misunderstandings can and will occur.

Myspace, Facebook, and the Real Me July 10, 2008

Assignment: What do you reveal and distort in your Myspace/Facebook page?

For this assignment I did not have to create Myspace page or a Facebook page because I already had both.  I went to each of my pages and really tried to look at them with an outsiders eye.  My goal was to see what my pages reveal or distort about who I am. 

What did my pages reveal?

Both of my pages revealed that I am a 26 year old caucasian women who lives in Eugene, OR with my husband and my young daughter.  My Myspace highlights my Christian faith with the background that emphasizes how I see my God as a father.  My interests focus on my passion for traveling and I have a map of the places I have been posted on my Myspace page.  My Facebook highlights my love of reading and traveling too.  The pictures that I have chosen to put on both of my pages focuses on my family and friends, as well as the places I have traveled to.  Mostly the pictures of my daughter Eliana, but a few are of my husband too.  I have very few of myself, except for those that show other countries like India and Nigeria.

What did my pages distort?

 Myspace allows you to put a song on your page. My song is a Christian rap song by Le Crae, so I guess people might think that I enjoy rap in general if they don’t listen to the lyrics, but it is really only Christian rap that I listen to.  Other than that I am not too sure.  I am pretty truthful when it comes to who and what I am.  I do not feel as though I need to distort anything.  This may be because I am already married and am not looking for a mate…this seems to be a huge reason why people choose to distort their self-image.  Myspace does ask for body type and I put average, though I have a little more baby weight to lose. 

Wood and Smith say that, ” manipulating one’s identity is nothing new to Western culture, and, indeed, neither are many of the insecurities associated with the practice,” (pg. 57). I guess if I really looked at it from a very critical standpoint I could say that my pages give the illusion that my family and I are totally happy all the time and that there are never any arguments or conflicts that happen.  I suppose most people do not generally post pictures of awful things in their lives though I guess they could blog about their frustrations, I just choose not to air out my business in a public forum.   Anyways, besides the pictures of the slums in India I do not have any pictures up of total “reality” as I know it.  This would probably be the biggest distortion.

Overall this has been quite an assignment.  I enjoyed having to take an outsider’s stance and perspective on my own life.

Brad Paisley and the Alter Ego July 3, 2008

Assignment:

Find the video for Brad Paisley’s So Much Cooler Online.What can you say about the characters in the music video? How does their personality change online/offline? What conclusions can you draw?

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I had never heard this song or watched the music video before, and I thought that it was hilarious.  Brad Paisley’s So Much Cooler Online, completely captures the essence of creating an alter ego over the internet.  The character of the fairly plump and dorky pizza-man who creates an image of a country-rock star with a great voice, a hunky body, and more money than he can count was very interesting.  I laughed aloud when we see the pizza-man online chatting with two gorgeous, young ”model” type women, who in their own right, turn out to be older women with a frumpy, homely look.   By the end of the song even the pizza-man’s parents, whom he lives with, desire an alter ego.  While the dad is creating a profile for himself on a Myspace or Facebook type program, his wife comments about how all of his friends are rather “chesty.” She says to get revenge she will create a profile just so she can have a friend that looks like Brad Paisley. 

Postman states in his book Technopoly  that, “Karl Marx understood technology well in saying that technologies create the ways in which people perceive reality, and that such ways are the key to understanding diverse forms of social and mental life,” (21).  This has a direct connection to the Brad Paisley song.  Our own thoughts about what is “attractive” or “acceptable” in American/Western society has driven people to create alternate realities, lying about who and what they really are.  This is not always good and can lead to disastrous results.

For instance, I think about the young girl who committed suicide a few years ago because of her relationship with a young “boy” over Myspace.  The young “boy” told her that the world would be better off without her.  The young “boy” was in fact a classmate and the classmate’s mother who lied about the profile so that they could gain this other girl’s trust to see if she was talking bad about people in her school.  This says a lot to me about perceived reality and the mental state of each person involved.  I am certainly not a psychologist but it was messed up situation on all sides and technology was at the center of it.  I also know that technology has been used by criminals to lure people young and old into schemes and horrible situations. 

To go along with this idea, one piece of technology that has recently come out on Myspace and is becoming quite the trend, is for young people to add what is called a Truth Box to their website.  This is a box that allows people to anonymously leave “truthful” comments about the person.  This is really sad to me because I can just imagine some of the things that are said and it seems to avert working out conflict face to face while at the same time allowing people to haphazardly leave mean or malicious comments without fully thinking about the repercussions of their words. 

I am just saddened by the fact that people actually think they are finding life in their lies.  Just like in the music video.  Like the pizza-man, a lot of people can’t be or choose not to be who they really are because they aren’t confident enough in themselves or our world tells them over and over again through television, magazines, movies, etc. that they AREN’T good enough. 

I think we convince ourselves that having an alter ego is fun…that we can be anyone and have anything.  However, I believe that a part from the cute music video, it is more harmful than we allow ourselves to believe.  While it is human beings that are using the technology for these purposes if they knew that the technology was more regulated they might think twice about making up things up about themselves for their own selfish purposes.