I thought that the readings of the last two weeks have been very interesting. In particular the article Introduction: Identity in the Age of the Internet, Sherry Turkle was thought provoking. One of her main points is that due to the anonymity of the MUDs gives “people the chance to express multiple and often unexplored aspects of the self, to play with their identity and try out new ones.” I believe that this point translates well into our AIM project. The extent to which someone creates an alternate persona online is influenced by anonymity and the creativity of their own self.
During the week I have had the chance to talk with two classmates made up personas. Both classmates were acting as elderly men. One was a Special Forces mentor who was called back into the forces to train the cadets, and the other was a depressing, earless, cat fearing old man. These personas were both filled with fun quirks or views on the world that may or may not be the same as the author. The change from real life to the Internet allowed the authors to act as someone completely different or as close to their true self as they wanted.
I believe that Turkle’s point is upheld in the AIM project because the authors had the ability to use and include as much or as little of their normal personality as they had wanted. The project also allowed the authors to explore a different life, one that may have more authoritative perspective or a very different view of the world, that the authors might not have shared without the anonymity of the Internet. I also think that her argument shows that people who make up a different persona on the Internet have the ability to think from a different perspective to stay in character. These multiple aspects of the self can be taken to whatever extent of creativity that the authors chose to use. This idea further reflects the implication of playing with the identity. Overall I thought of this project as an interesting mini case study of how easily people can develop a false identity in the virtual realm.
I think you have a great and succinct summary of Turkle's argument: anonymity can generate a completely imaginary persona that has nothing to do with the creator's identity. It is interesting how the two people were both old man and yet their backgrounds were totally different. Maybe adding some examples from the conversations you had would make the argument more clear?
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