Digital Communications – Final Reflective Essay
Richard Bradley - 3584264
Online Public Culture
Critically assess the importance and impact of the varying forms of online presence that Web 2.0 has introduced. Discuss material that has been covered throughout the course.
Having an online presence has become a fundamental aspect of our lives, specifically adolescents, in modern western societies and given the introduction of Web 2.0 there is a ridiculous range of mediums that are free and accessible to online users who wish to create a public online identity. Networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have collectively become a phenomenon of the digital era. These online social platforms have enabled users to keep in constant contact with virtually anyone who has an internet connection. The aforementioned platforms have the capability of projecting a favored persona or an alter ego. It is perhaps because of this ability that they have become so popular. Both of these social sites have the same principle features that include posting comments on other users profiles, tagging of photos, personal information sections and status updates, yet a significant majority of teenagers would endeavor to have an account on both sites. Blogs have also been thrown to the forefront of the digital world. Blogs allow us to vent about personal issues, narrate a series of events and generally describe whatever we please welcoming praise or criticism via comments from other users. Online worlds and the use of virtual 3D avatars have recently accompanied the social networking sites in recent years on a tremendous scale. Online worlds encourage the development of virtual character that simulate, replicate or interest the actual user. These avatars can then interact with other avatars online in virtual replicas or unique constructs on the web, thus introducing an additional medium form of online presence.
Facebook is undeniably the current favorite social networking site among online users. The university-educated or similar age level youth who make up Facebook’s primary demographic seek to define ourselves and shape our public identity through the pieces of our profiles that Facebook lets us fill in. As users we are constrained to what we consider important or relevant information and so first impressions of people we friend, whether they be new acquaintances, or old classmates we haven’t seen in a long time or distant relatives, are so often determined by those first few fields in the Facebook profile: “Interested in,” “Looking for,” “Relationship Status,” “Political Views,” “Religious Views,” and mostly the profile display picture (Ellison, 2007). The combination of these factors, sum up our first impressions of online identities.
Despite the privacy settings that accompany Facebook, virtually all profiles have some information that is public. This is where a slight hysteria sets in. Individuals, who set their profiles to private, only allow people they approve via “Friend Request” to view their personal information. Only their display picture is publicly viewable. It goes without saying that any user would rather an image of them that represents their preferred personal perception of their personality. However, the availability of the tagging option has introduced loopholes to our private profiles. A tagged photo of a user is generally accessible to anyone who is ‘friends’ with the user who posted and tagged the photo. This is where the impact of identity begins to leave the internet and enter reality. As users we are constantly aware of photo’s being taken of us in reality due to the likelihood of being tagged in it and posted on Facebook for a large amount of people to see (Gross, 2007).
MySpace was the initial networking platform that removed our generation’s interest away from MSN Messenger. MySpace introduced us to voyeurism essentially. Users became fixated on not only being in regular contact with friends but also keeping up to date, monitoring, comparing ourselves with others that could be easily found within a much larger pool of contacts (Gillmor, 2003). MySpace established the concept of the ‘Photo Album’ where we became able to carefully select and publish our favorite photos to our online friends. This in turn saw the adaptation of modifying our online identity. We were presented with an ability to transform our online selves into a preferred form, a projection of a better us. Whatever that desired projection may be, it would vary between different users, we were all able to alter our public online identity.
MySpace has since dissipated under the throne holder of Facebook. It has and continues to undergo numerous alterations to the site to win back the majority of online users. The key flaw of the functionality of MySpace lies in its HTML format. The site runs slower, its harder use and follow in comparison to Facebook. Since the outbreak of Facebook, MySpace has replicated all of the features that are currently available on Facebook, such as the online chat room, status updates and a live new feed of goings on with other contacts. These attempts to increase MySpace popularity demonstrates the major interests that users of social networks possess. The need to constantly be in contact with others, constantly share personal thoughts via status updates and to monitor other users.
Blogging is often viewed upon as a new, grassroots form of journalism and a way to shape democracy outside the mass media and conventional party politics (Nardi, 2004). Blog sites devoted to politics and punditry, as well as to sharing technical developments, receive thousands of hits a day. However the vast majority of blogs are written by ordinary people for much smaller audiences. Blogs combine the immediacy of up-to-the-minute posts, latest first, with a strong sense of the author’s personality, passions, and point of view, hence the democratic tone. Blogs, much like social networking sites, enable users to interact, provide feedback and encourage external influences. Blogs are a much more solitary way of creating an online presence, with the primary idea to vent your own personal thoughts to anyone who cares to read about the chosen topic.
The reasons why we blog are extremely expansive. Everyone who blogs has a personalized direction or incentive that drives their respective blog posts. From my personal experience during the web project, I utilized a deep passion of mine and transformed it into an alter ego. I wanted the project to be a whimsical journey of an aspiring rock musician. I thoroughly enjoyed undertaking the blogging journey as I have never taken to blogging before. It is an extremely strange concept, essentially typing to yourself (although there are ways to promote and publicize blogs) fully aware that no one may ever read what I was typing. I found this particular type of online presence slightly refreshing but more so detrimental. The attraction of enriching an online presence via blog posts is obviously very appealing to a very large range of different people, but it cannot be treated as an authentic read. Blogs have essentially replaced the common household diary or removed thought process and although I am not a diary person, I believe some things are left better left unsaid and unpublished. People are beginning to think and ponder less and less. They blog instead.
Online worlds have become apart of millions of web users lives. Users are able to interact with others online to a scale that is beyond achievable in reality thus the large appeal and subsequent following (Meadows, 2007). Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG’s) such as World of Warcraft (WoW) and virtual communities such as Second Life allow people too create either fantasy characters or certain depictions of them self and interact with others who have done the same. It is essentially an easier, more creative and imaginative life, just it isn’t reality. It is easier in every factor to become better at what the respective user wants to excel at. This can range from interpersonal skills to slaying dragons. Consequently this has proven to be extremely addictive for some people.
World of Warcraft is by far the most popular MMORPG in modern gaming societies. With over approximately 12 million users across the globe logging into a world of seemingly endless possibility and fantasy. The game takes place in a 3D representation of the “Warcraft” universe that players can interact with others through their characters. The game world initially features two continents of “Azeroth”, with two separate expansions adding to the playable area. In this game world, players use their characters to explore locations, defeat creatures and complete quests among other such activities. By doing this, characters are able to gain “Experience points” or “EXP”. After a set amount of experience points have been gained, a character gains a “Level”, opening up the option of learning new skills or abilities, exploring new areas and attempting new quests, hence the seemingly endless nature of the game (Smahel, 2005).
Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab that launched on June 23, 2003, and is accessible via the Internet. A free client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called “Residents”, to interact with each other through avatars. Second Life is for people aged 18 and over given certain explicit features, while Teen Second Life is for people aged 13 to 17. Avatars are now a common part of the online experience, from thumbnail images used in instant messages to full-blown animated 3D characters with histories and property (Morie, 2008). The number of avatar users is over 200 million worldwide, and the number of people creating new avatars doubles every nine months. As Morie observes “…avatars fight with virtual swords, build virtual buildings, have virtual relationships and have virtual babies”. These online identities are separate from the real world, but sometimes the line between virtual and real blurs. For instance, people fall in love and real money is made.
Avatars raise significant issues regarding identity and online presence. Users are effectively able to inject a refined form of them self into another social network without the toil of real life interpersonal interaction. The avatar is not just an object manipulated by the participant; it is a representation of real life identity but the extent of how much that representation of identity is actually true is often fabricated (Bugeja, 2008). The problem with addiction begins with players or users that believe they have become identifiable with their characters with reference to appearance, skills and abilities (Taylor, 2002). Once this connection is established, the increase of these character traits are open to modification a lot easier than in real life as benchmarks programmed into the online world are much more entertaining and easier to attain online. Online presence in online worlds severely challenges questions of identity of the user (Wolfendale, 2006). It is evident from summation of the aforementioned potential pit falls of the virtual worlds that is extremely easy for users to get caught up in a blur of true reality and virtual realism.
Web 2.0 has introduced the world to a new way of interacting with others, portraying one self and is constantly pushing the boundary of what is real and what is virtually real. Online social networks have simply become an ordinary facet of the majority of teenager’s lives along with other demographics. The need to keep in contact and project a favorable identity is now a virtually social acceptance. Concepts of voyeurism have been clouded out over the years of constantly looking at revealing images of others on a daily basis. Blogs represent the democratic journalism of the future with bloggers posting anything that comes to mind, however, questions of authenticity still remain due to the misguidance that is easily created via blog posts and surrounding features. Online worlds represent the encroaching digital age as well as a collaboration of all the above issues. They are the replication of reality in a virtual setting where endless possibilities are only clicks and hits of buttons away. Identity online is rarely not distorted through available gateways of online presence. It is simply too easy and to interesting not to change information about one self so that we are portrayed publicly in a better light.
References
- Bugeja, M 2008, Second Thoughts About Second Life, University of Iowa, USA.
- Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook “friends:” Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), article 1.
- Gillmor, D 2003, Making the news. E-Journal: News, Views, and a Silicon,
Valley Diary.
- Gross, R 2006, Imagined Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook, Springer Berlin, Heidelberg.
- Meadows, M 2007, I avatar: the culture and consequences of having a second life, First edition, New Riders Publishing, Thousand Oaks, California, USA.
- Morie, J 2008, Body/Persona/Action, Emerging Non-anthropomorphic Communication and Interaction in Virtual Worlds, University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, USA.
- Nardi , B, Schiano, J, Gumbrecht, M & Swartz, L 2004, Why We Blog, Vol. 47, No. 12 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM.
- Smahel, D, Blinka L & Ledabyl, O 2005, MMORPG playing of youths and adolescents: addiction and its factors, MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL STUDIES, Czech Republic.
- Taylor, T.L. 2002, Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds., in Ralph Schroeder, editor, The Social Life of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, Springer-Verlag, London.
- Wolfendale, J 2006, My avatar, my self: Virtual harm and attachment, Springer Netherlands. London. UK.
