jayjay’s stuff

A couple of things:

After the last post, I was recommended to get this book, City of Bits (1995) (William J Mitchell) by my supervisor- so I have ordered in on Amazon and have began reading a small preview on Google books.

Of the short section I've scanned over, already picking out themes of identity which still haven't really changed in the last 15 years since the book's beginnings.

I've maintained the principle that online interaction is becoming less literal (no need for an obvious avatar, ala Second Life - rather a multitude of interactions on different levels and platforms) - so I like the perspective that identity online is heavily manipulative, and reliant on how you think others see you. Michael Wesch suggested in his presentation about politics of authenticity that online communication is truly the first communication mechanism where we have been forced to look at ourselves in the reflections of others. Using youtube as his main example, Wesch shows clips of his students using Youtube for the first time, coming to terms with talking to a webcam, watching back their videos from the perspective of others and contemplating how others might see and understand them as human beings.

What Mitchell is saying here, however, is that persona is created by other people and can lead to a jarring sensation when you actually decide to meet in "meatspace" - Certainly, when you work with online media, maintaining an online identity is a full time occupation, but the notions of private and public start being more about what you prefer or WANT people to see about you, rather than who you actually are (it is said that if you never lie, you never have to remember anything...).

I don't think that feeling will ever go away, at least with online media in its current guise, but the fact that we have managed to change, or at least add to how we understand ourselves as individuals is fascinating.

Posterous keeps getting cooler - being directly able to lift pages from google books can never be a bad thing. All I need now is to be allowed to use a digital highlighter to complete the paperless transition.