Meet Skinny Pipes
This is Pipes…he’s a guy’s guy. But from the mullet, we can see he has no sense of fashion. He loves sports, especially football. I expected to give him a “meatier� body frame but was limited to this skinny one. But Pipes has enough self-confidence that he doesn’t need the muscles to appear. Meez reminded me of Mr/Mrs. Potato Head. You have the framework (the potato) and the characteristics could be changed by altering the details on the potato body. Meez was actually quite entertaining but not a site I would go back to and create new avatars.
My experiences online are limited as I am more of an information finder. From the pop-ups, there are a number of derogatory ads exploiting women. During some of the comments I’ve read on other blogs, it is interesting to try and figure out the author’s sex. Some the of clues mentioned in the articles (flaming remarks, lack of help when asked, unable to maintain the gender for a given period of time, etc) were obvious but nothing that I put together in my own mind. The web is virtual and a number of the flaming remarks as made by men online are incredible. I wonder, if these people were face-to-face, would the same remarks would be made. Most likely not. I think when women communicate via the web, they often tend to write as if it truly were a face to face conversation - � included. I do not use the : ) in my writings but have noticed them in others. They were all women. If the message was negative, the unhappy face : ( was part of the sign off.
Comments
I found your comment about men and their flaming tendencies online versus real life to be very interesting. I agree with you that men who flame online will probably not do so in real life because they would want people to like them. If they were to flame so openly in real life, few people would actually want to be around them. I mean, who would really want to hang around someone who will put them down at any remark that they make? I personally wouldn't. I also agree with you that women tend to write online as they would speak. I think that in this particular aspect, women are more honest about the way that they feel and use emoticons to soften their speech. The reason why I say that women are more honest in the way that they write and speak is that they don't usually use men's passive agressive style of flaming. Some women probably do, but not the majority.
Posted by: Natalya Goncharova | February 9, 2007 12:25 PM
I agree with you about remarks made on the web, I find that people never say things in real life, that would say on the internt. This is because I belive the internet isn't real life, so people act like they are immune to other's sentiment, as if they were dreaming.
Posted by: Slet0056 | February 10, 2007 02:05 PM
I think that how a person acts online depends on both the person and the situation, rather than gender. While I'll agree that men are more likely to flame on the internet, I wouldn't say that women are more honest. For example, in a political chat room people are more likely to say things they wouldn't in real life, while there are (supposedly) many people who meet their significant other on some sort of online dating site, and if both parties aren't honest on the internet, who knows whether or not they would be compatible in real life.
Posted by: Matt Erickson | February 11, 2007 07:34 PM
I definately agree with Matt, that how a person acts or perceives themselves online is more based upon their personality verses gender. I definaetly agree though that some people will go to more extremes in saying things via the internet than they would feel comfortable saying it face to face. I think this coincides with both males and females.
I definately have found in my own personal experiences, that females have a greater tendency to use symbols such as =) & =( while communicating via the internet. I think this is because women have a tendency to place more feelings in their thoughts and actions. So adding a =) just adds that personalized feeling to a message being communicated.
Posted by: Erin Milbrath | February 11, 2007 09:17 PM