HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You MUST MUST MUST watch these videos – LOL and you should watch them simultaneously if possible. :) Same song – different actors. In one version you see an ACTUAL person. In the other version you see their AVATAR (or online identity.) SO CLASSIC!!!!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNyg1ftMIU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCgHS0TwIA8[/youtube]
We left off yesterday thinking about how many identities we have and how our online identities may differ from our “real life” selves. I confessed that years ago I presented my identity on mySpace differently than on Facebook. I was the same person – but my online identities differed. ScoMan made a good point about how our identities change according to context. Dave philosophized that our TRUE identity is found somewhere between our dreams (identities we wish we could try out – or do try out in the online world) and our fears (the identity we present to the actual world – held back by fear or societal pressure.)
Soo… let’s get on with it. 200 words or less. :) Let’s talk AVATARS!!! :)
(First you should PROLLY for fun – turn a picture of yourself into an avatar-ish pic at BeFunky.com – why? because it’s FUN! :)
Dr. Suler from Self Help Magazine explains,
“The basic assumption of a psychotherapy using avatars is that all of the personae created in the virtual scenario are the various manifestations of the person’s psyche.”
DO YOU AGREE?? Is the picture you choose to use as an avatar a manifestation of your psyche? I think it might!! We choose the clothes we want to wear and how we present ourselves. It says something about us. How is choosing how we present ourselves online be any different?
This begs the question – if the avatar we choose is an alter ego then is it our alter ego interacting in the network or online community? For example if Jane is a thin, elderly woman but her avatar in her online community is a fat man – is it the fat man or thin Jane engaging in the network?? And if our avatar becomes besties within a social network with the fat man, are we really only networked with thin Jane? Because we THOUGHT we were besties with a fat man!!
This next clip is an example of how online identities can be so very, very different than real life.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge2FHDf_L78[/youtube]
Alright – that’s enough for this part!! We’ll conclude tomorrow!! :)
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I had the song perfect.. it was like the way you used to sing songs like “Row row your boat” in primary school how they’d get one class to sing “Row row row your boat” and then the next section starts and so on. It was working well until the rap bit, then it just became a lot of noise.
Schizo made me laugh. I played that role in a chat room or two in my time. It was fun. Also the irregardless argument, I’ve been there before too. The things teenagers do to amuse themselves.
As for Avatar’s being how I want to be.. my friend has this game called “Champions Online” and he got me to create a character to give it a try, and I created a dwarf with pointy ears, big eyes, a massive beard, claws for hands and a massive tail. I don’t know if that’s how I see myself or not.
I will have to BeFunky.com after work. Why am I reading blogs before work? Because I woke up way too early this morning.
My co-workers husband is into the air-brushed perfection of on-line porn and hasn’t wanted non “on-line community” sex for years. How close does AVATAR come to invoking the same type of fantasy addiction that porn does? “It’s all fun and games ’till you poke your eye out.”