Week 3 Topic 1 - Continued

Online Identities - With more and more online social networking taking over our lives (especially with us younger generation) it gives us a chance to be the better person we want to be in real life. For example even having the choice to display ourselves with a different name, it creates a whole new image for us.
It may be seen as a small risk to take, but if any a good risk as we can create that person we really want to be inside. As an example, in the film Fight Club we see Edward Norton become the person he wants to be rather than the boring one he lives day to day in a dead end job. This is what we are doing today, but instead of a mental case, we do it through technology/the internet. Plus as it's technology, we have the choice of how far we want to portray ourselves differently, the only danger we have is of ourselves.

Representation Of Selves - In this post-modern age, the issue of people's backgrounds has taken a back seat as we can express ourselves as freely as we want. If we take social networking into account again, individuals are aloud to 'promote' their backgrounds etc. With pages and sites devoted to their needs or interests.

Cyberidentities - As I have already mentioned we play with our identities online and tend to make new ones up, so of course our 'cyberidentities' are an alternative to our real ones. One of the reasons for people to do this maybe as a comfort zone. For example if someone was a shy person in real life, they can come off as a loud one online. So these new identities have benefits which may lead to being passed off into their real life ones?

Online/Offline Relationships - I understand I have been speaking on a personal level with these topics, however this can be the best way as it may differ from Lister's views. So with relationships we have with people on and offline, I'd say that they can differ quite a lot.
Again as we can portray ourselves differently online, we may communicate with people better through the Net. We may find more confidence through using the keyboard than our words which may suit some people. However face to face relationships will always be better, of course if the other person is on the other side of the planet, in a jungle somewhere haha.