It is evident that more and more people use the Internet to keep in touch with friends and family, but also to meet new people. This leads to questions about the type of relationships people have over the Internet. Are these relationships as fulfilling as 'real-life' relationships? Can you really get to know somebody over the Internet? There are stories about couples meeting in Internet chatrooms and getting married, so perhaps to some extent these relationships can develop but there are also stories about people meeting others they have met online and finding out they are not who they think they are.
There is then the question of who we are when we are online. Are we always ourselves, or do we adopt a completely different persona? In a study of an online community, Jennifer Mnookin concluded that users 'need not in any way correspond to a person's real life identity; people can make and remake themselves, choosing their gender and the details of their online presentation' (1996) This shows that people can be whoever they want to be online, and not have to face the consequences of what would happen if they were like that in reality. This is underpinned by the names of some of the sites such as Myspace and Youtube, reinforcing the idea of being there for you to be who you want to be, whether that really is yourself, or someone entirely different.
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in my opinion, i dont think that online relationships can constitute offline ones. If people put on a persona online, its the same as talking to your partner in real life with a constant 'telephone voice', when u get to know someone offline, there is no need for a persona because they are getting to know the real you and all of the characteristics you pick up from meeting someone face to face
ReplyDeleteGood to see the blogging continue here. Try challenging your own (and theorists') assumptions though - it's tempting to be cetain of things, but sometimes more critically productive to ask if there's another way of seeing things. For instance, your Youtube/Myspace example is great - but could there be another way of reading this?
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ReplyDeleteI really like you blog Lucy, I do feel that online relationships cant be as fullfilling as real life relationships. Body language and facial expressions are meant to be more important in forming relationships than the words that are spoken and how can you connect with someone when you cant even see how they react to you?
ReplyDeleteIt has been known that couples have met over internet dating sites and have stayed together after meeting, but perhaps this only works when you are your "real" self online? If one person pretends to be someone they are not, then they probably are unlikely to keep this persona up long enough to meet the other person in real life.
I really like your idea of the MYspace and YOUtube, but do the names of these sites fool people into believing everything they see? If I found a person on Myspace I would probablly accept them as they present themselves, why would I question them?
The internet is great, but im becoming more aware of what is out there.
I agree Hannah, and I think after looking at this, I will be more aware of how people present themselves on the Interent and on sites such as Myspace and Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI agree also with your point about forming relationships on the Internet. It is completely different if you already know the person, and are just casually chatting to them online, but to get to know someone online, is, in my opinion, not as fulfilling as a real relationship.