Blog #6: Response to Ivy Y. & Re-evaluation of Social Media Use & Identity
As I look back on my initial blog post, written at the beginning of the semester, I haven't really changed much in my outlook on social media. I am still a fervent fan of face-to-face interaction and experiencing all that we can through physical-empirical experiences (a Facebook check-in here and there is fine, but for one to pick up their phone every single time in the face of company is still annoying to me). Having said this, I definitely agree with Ivy's "The Real 'I'" post when she notes that "social media is just a tool and social necessity", but that this class's analytical take on social media has led us to become more wary of our online identities and actions. Offering incite into the seemingly inevitable emotional attachments SM users take on, I like that Ivy highlights that people need to focus more on the creation of our real identities --quality included-- and that we need to lessen our fixation on the creation and maintenance of our online personae because arguably, it is the real interpersonal relationships we hold that have substance, and nothing can truly take the place of a face-to-face physically interactive encounter.
Notice --I wrote that I like this notion, but I don't completely agree anymore that we can generalize this notion --placing emphasis on the development of face-to-face encounters to everyone who is an SM user. As we have done readings on online communities and those who are psychologically and emotionally attached to their online selves (i.e. SecondLife, LamdaMOO), my outlook has definitely changed as I empathize with those who feel as though their real selves are in fact their online selves because they cannot be who they want to be in the real world. What I have realized with our studies is that identity cannot always be clearly defined. There are gray areas; in some cases, identities can overlap both in the real and online world, while for some, especially for those who may have different interests or perspectives from everyday societal norms, the online is completely separate and real; a place where they can be who they want to be with whomever they want to be with. I never thought that I could see online communities as a place of real substance; one where people can have real emotional attachments, but knowing friends who have forged real relationships via Tumblr and through my own research on the digital afterlife (online communities mourning for people they know online but have never met in person), It is a bit strange to me, I admit, but I'm beginning to understand more how these non-physical spaces (cyberspace) can actually occupy a place in one's reality. --Charli Lee.