Life in the Network

First things first, I’d like you all to meet my Meez. Her real name is Bianca, but some other meez already had that, so she is going under the pseudonym “szes0002�. I can honestly say that this is the first time I’ve altered my gender on the internet, except for a few practical jokes; but that’s neither here nor there. I tried to make my Meez as different from myself as possible. However, with this assignment, I found it very interesting how I wanted to make my Meez be what I would consider attractive. Yes, I know she’s a little underdressed…but I was just having fun. In the same respect, I could have had just as much fun making her ugly and repulsive, but that’s not what my first instinct was to do.

After reading the material given to us in class, I was very surprised, and yet curious regarding a point Turkle made. She explained how a variety of people created a different gender than their own online. She then went on to explain that a majority of these people did so because they wanted to understand and feel how the opposite sex was treated, how they thought, and what situations they were put in. Using a specific example, in “Tinysex and Gender Trouble,� Turkle talks about a 28-year-old male named Garrett who has taken on an online female gender. She quotes him, “I wanted to know more about women’s experiences, and not just from reading about them… I wanted to see what the difference felt like. I wanted to experiment with the other side…I wanted to be collaborative and helpful, and I thought it would be easier as a female...� However, I fail to see how playing a different gender MUD allows you to REALLY experience all those things. Yes, I believe that certain things are definitely different, such as women probably get hit on a lot more than men in the online world. But in regards to Garrett’s case, I feel that in the online world, men and women are on an equal playing field when it comes to helping another person out.

After being exposed to Second Life last week, I became interested in doing a project for another one of my classes on it. In order to acquire the necessary data, I had to create an account, and actually try it out. After learning to walk and fly, I learned how to interact with people. In answering the question, “How does this ability influence our actions in digital spaces?� I would like to use SL as an example. When online, it depends on the medium you are using to connect with people. If you were chatting with someone on a dating website, you would want to be careful, and make sure that the person you are talking with is actually the gender that you are being led to believe. AKA, in this situation I believe your actions should be shielded with precaution. However, after trying to interview people on Second Life, I found that they did not like to even acknowledge their first or real life. So in that respect, when within the realm of SL, I don’t think people even consider being cautious in regards to gender.

Personally, I am not really involved in an online community, so I don’t have much experience with the matter. Also, because I don’t count on the online world to build relationships, I don’t have any concerns about the possibility of people using a pseudo-gender. However, if I did, I would much rather prefer that everyone was truthful in telling their gender online, so I could know who I am really dealing with, as opposed to a person that is completely fake.