On page 167 Lister argues that having a pseudonym for yourself online serves as something which we are able to hide behind whilst experimenting with different identities as because they are not linked with our real name and therefore the real us, we are more free to take on a different persona whilst this name is representing us. I would have to disagree with this point as the name I always pick for myself when doing anything online is KayleyA. By choosing my real name to represent me online I am therefore not masquerading as anything and not creating a different identity for myself to experiment with.
Whilst perhaps this means that I do not feel the need to experiment with different personas in order to improve myself, being perfectly content with how I am in real life at the moment, I believe it also represents a degree of honesty and having no barriers to hide behind. In comparison to someone who perhaps chooses an ambiguous name for themselves, for example, someone on a forum I post on is called, ElkY, their real name being Bertrand, to me this suggests that they need something to hide behind and suggests an air of dishonesty. By withholding their name I believe it subconsciously causes me to assume that their posts will lack validity.
Although withholding names does create the impression that people are maybe hiding behind something, there's nothing to say that people who are using real names as screen-names are necessarily using their own real names. XXXXX
ReplyDeleteThe fact we don't know really who is sat at the other computer is what is entailed in online communication.
What about if you were on a music forum, for example, and someone had a bands lyrics or songname as their SN? Would that make you suspicious of them? At least then they're not claiming to be someone they aren't. You can't garuantee that someone online with a real name IS that person, and maybe their use of a real name makes you more susceptible to believe what they say?
ReplyDeleteI agree that no matter what someone sets their name to, you still don't have any idea about who they are, or any indication of how trust worthy they may be. I think that I'm just subconsciously fooled into assuming that someone with a name like "Derek" is more "real" than someone with a name like "Cherrypiekisses4eva" and as a result I think I'd be more likely to be on the same page as someone with a more realistic name.
ReplyDeleteI can see the logic behind having a unrelated name, in protecting your anonymity, but still at the back of my mind there is an amount of honesty associated with it. Maybe it's something I need to shake off as of course neither one of these people is more trustworthy than the other.
I think we're all having to learn (as a species) how to deal with this situation of 'being our own TV station' whilst 'being alone in a crowd'.
ReplyDeleteAs I said at the start of the unit, students used to go to college and lose contact with everyone in their past for weeks on end. What's more, no college staff cared particularly how they were doing socially, unless they sought the help of student welfare professionals. Now there is the complex support/hassle of so much more connectedness, publicness, relationship maintenance etc. There's probably never been a time previously when so many people are having to cope with such rapid social/emotional changes -and no-one knows what's expected -we're all having to make it up as we go along (especially on this unit!)