Reflection on Identity (Step Two)

After going through page upon page and looking for more, Ive come to one simple conclusion: there are too many of them! However they do tend to share a few qualities. Most of them do not necessarily give a life-story anywhere on the site or in the web-journal. Its the readers job to piece somebody together using the journal entries theyve written or simply looking through pictures on a web-site. Especially when looking at web-journals, its hard to actually find the beginning of the journal. So the first time you come upon one, you just have to figure out whats going on. Which presents the question: why are they doing this in the first place? It seems like most of the authors (if that is the appropriate term) are simply looking for a place to vent and share stories with people. Now a community-building pattern is visible, because they feel like they belong to a group who wants to listen to their thoughts and stories about their lives.

I was a little confused at first about weblogs. When I first heard about them (which was in this class), I just though people simply posted links for other people to look at. However after looking at a few of them, some people post everything from news articles from the top stories of the day to recipies for pies. Whats interesting though is that some people just post random things that share nothing in common with other links. The point of such a thing I dont quite understand.

There was one journal that I found that was created by a student at the University of Houston. Some days she would posts five or six times and other days she would not post anything, and would not post something for days. Some posts were pages long and others were a sentence or two. But there was one thing that caught my eye. She mentioned something about going home for Christmas. She told her readers that she would not post for a while when she was at home, because she didnt want her site to be left on the history of her parents web browser. She went on to explain that she did not want her parents to know about her journal. So I started to think about some other websites I had seen, and began to notice that many were build people who dont give a name, just some handle that they use online. So why would these people, who are looking for a place to stalk or put their opinions out in the open, not give names in the fear that their identity may be disclosed? What is the point? Obviously there is some connection, but I havent quite figured it out yet. Is identity no longer necessary in forming a relationship, whether it be real or online?

Self-reflection (Part Three)

I decided not to put any personal information on the web page I created because 1) that wasnt the point of my web page and 2) I didnt feel too comfortable with it. I knew that I would eventually share this web page with my class mates, and I decided that I would not enjoy sharing certain things with my peers. I think a few other people in the class had the same feeling I had. It is very public, however it is very much possible to keep a page private. By keeping the address of the page away from people you dont wish to view the site, they have no way of knowing it even exists. Like I said in the other journal, the UH student allows anyone to view her site but her parents. At the same time her journal is both public, and in terms of her family very private.

Identities online are inauthentic in the fact that they are no longer kept to the people who personally know the person who presented the identity online. Before the identity had a sort of cult value because it was known to a select group of people. Now it is available to anyone who happens to stumble upon it. Online identities are also extremely fluid in that images presented online on a web site can be interpreted in so many way. Also, as long as the site continues to change, so does the identity of its author.

CMC disconnects identities from bodies because the body is no longer available. Cyberspace is completely digital, and what we see on a screen is an interpretation of a code. Once the visual aspect of communication is removed from interaction, a physical body almost becomes useless, except of course for typing in code into the computer.

Once identities move on line, the definition of community seems to broaden. Everybody online can be considered a community for the simple fact that they are all on line. Like the physical body, the concept of community almost becomes obsolete because identities are so fluid and inauthentic. How can we name a group a community when we may not know the true identity of the members of the group?