12 thoughts on “Week 11 – New Media Identities (T4)”
Patricia loh hui ye
In her article, “Don’t hate the player, Hate the game”: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft” Lisa Nakamura discusses how ‘worker players’ within the game of world of Warcraft are becoming discriminated against in terms of race. Her focus is not on the game itself, but rather on the racialization players bring to the game, breaking the players into 2 distinct groups: leisure players and worker players. Worker players “produce and sell virtual goods such as weapons, garments, animals and even their own leveled-up avatars or virtual bodies to other players for real world money” this resentment against workers-players had led to many being targeted and even killed online. In addition, the game world of Warcraft also allows the players to create their own digital rhetoric which they can then post online creating a forum for those who have the same opinion to come together in agreement without fear of prejudice.
Averie Lim
Turkle’s focus on the reconstruction of identities on online media such as in MUD games and on social media sites can be related to the fulfillment of humans’ desires.
We can link this to Horkheimer and Adorno’s ideas of cinematography achieving desires through on-screen heroes to derive satisfaction, where using social media to share and upload posts on social causes, for instance, allow users to get a sense of satisfaction from seemingly being part of these social causes without actually physically participating in them. MUD games also allow users to have control over their online personas thus giving them the opportunity to fulfill their desires.
James Ang
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games.
An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBMtKgemIg
Mohammad Syafiq
This is about as cool, and as freaky as it can be about “technology”. Perhaps Turkle’s betwixt and between theory can be extended to talk about the human need to “transcend”. To transcend our ordinary lives, to become the superheroes that we always wanted to take on (I know I imagine myself to think I have a magic wand, going around the house swishing an elaborately decorated chopstick, haha) by appropriating the online or virtual identities to ways that we want them to be like, without restraint, without the need to be judged: transcending all boundaries.
Tan Zhuan Liang
I’d figured Sherry Turkle’s point about constructions and reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality is rather true. Virtual reality could be seen as a way of extending man’s mental capability where the online realm is able to provide the endless possibility where anything is possible. Turkle introduced examples of role playing games like Second Life where one could replicate himself to the virtual world or even reconstruct an opposing figure (from one’s traits in reality). While it’s important to acknowledge the importance of creating a ‘second life’ in the virtual (regardless of being true to your true self or not), virtual reality has imperatively ushered in the notion of self-expression. Due to the complexity of interaction of social actors in reality or online, a human in contemporary society have adopt several identities. This is not to say that by having to switch identities would erode one’s true self, but it shows the intricate social relations virtual reality has accidentally brought in. Life is only as complex as the many identities that fills up our little soul.
James Ang
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games. An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game.
Reading Turkle’s article led me to observe other relevant examples outside the gaming world. Such reconstruction of self can be extended to the internet community. In the internet community though, users reconstruct their identities in other ways. They can do so by using interesting usernames and most importantly, display their personality through the internet comments they post. An example of this can be seen in Saturday Night Live skit on internet comments.
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games.
An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game.
Reading Turkle’s article led me to observe other relevant examples outside the gaming world. Such reconstruction of self can be extended to the internet community. In the internet community though, users reconstruct their identities in other ways. They can do so by using interesting usernames and most importantly, display their personality through the internet comments they post. An example of this can be seen in Saturday Night Live skit on internet comments.
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games.
An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game.
Reading Turkle’s article led me to observe other relevant examples outside the gaming world. Such reconstruction of self can be extended to the internet community. In the internet community though, users reconstruct their identities in other ways. They can do so by using interesting usernames and most importantly, display their personality through the internet comments they post. An example of this can be seen in Saturday Night Live skit on internet comments.
In her article, boyd contrasts the dynamics of interactions that take place in physical and online, or digital, realms. These interactions occur within, and are framed by, the different environmental contexts present in these two contrasting realms. Significantly, online users, having been accustomed to the structural dynamics of the physical landscape, often mistakenly apply these dynamics to their online conversations. For instance, people interacting in the physical realm “expect a certain level of privacy and control over their words”, due to their socialized experiences of social interactions as “fleeting and immobile”. Carrying such expectations to the digital realm is inherently problematic, as it is made up of a different “architecture” and functions in a different environmental context.
Numerous instances of such misplaced expectations may be observed. I recall the derogatory comments recently made online by Briton Anton Casey against local public transport users. The derisory comments made by Amy Cheong against Malays and their wedding practices also come to mind. These comments were conceivably made off the cuff, with no regard for or consciousness of their implications. Notably, the flippant attitude with which the comments were made can be expected to be excused or overlooked if the comments were made privately, in the physical realm. Applying this expectation to the digital realm however, is a completely different matter, due to the extensive reach and public-ness of the comments. Additionally, the archival of the comments can be observed to affect the protagonists long after the initial postings. When fleeting impressions morph insidiously into archived records, users may also be exposed to the manipulation of the situational context in which their interactions were initially made. The permanence of online interactions results in surprise when interactions of yore are exposed or worse, used against them
boyd also expounds on the negativities of the explosion of information. One problem is the difficulty of verifying the validity of the information encountered. This is especially problematic as the increasing democratization of the online sphere allows virtually anyone, regardless of status and knowledge, to post anything online.
In my opinion, the more serious problem is the decreasing control one has over the representation of his online self. When we have limited say on how we appear online, we run the risk of being unfairly discredited or portrayed by users pursuing an agenda. On a personal note, this has cultivated a wariness of online interactions, often resulting in me highly curtailing my online self for fear of inadvertently revealing information that could be used against me.
boyd highlights the use of multiple online accounts to cope with online misrepresentation of one’s self. Such association of “particular accounts with particular contexts” is commonly observed in the use of different email accounts for different contexts. With the explosion of social media, many Facebook users also maintain more than one account, using the range of accounts to present different facets of their selves. I have even encountered friends who create accounts to flirt with and discreetly stalk their “objects of desire”. A particular friend’s interactions through such an account even culminated in physical meetings, as well as a romance. This is indeed intriguing, as it illustrates the intertwining of the digital and physical realms. The notion of reality becomes contested and redefined, with the digital realm increasingly becoming as “real” as the physical realm. Indeed, digital interactions can give rise to physical consequences. This is indicative of Jean Baudrillard’s conception of postmodern societies, where mediated spheres may be “more real than the real”. This echoes Turkle’s article, in which she discusses the reality of MUDs. These are spaces in which the “real” is intertwined with the virtual, the two having an intimate relationship.
I read with great interests with regards to Sherry Turkles article about MUD gaming and her point about the virtual reality as not being real, but having a relationship to the ‘real’. Similar to the MUD community is the VATSIM community. The VATSIM community is essentially an online community of Flight Simulator and Air Traffic Controller Simulator enthusiasts. Real players assume the roles of pilots and air traffic controllers as they interact with each other in a virtual flying world. What is significant is that this allows many people to have ‘real’ flying experiences that would normally be out of reach due to the expense/requirements needed to fly in real-life.
VATSIM also allows players to try various manoeuvres, techniques without the real-life consequences that may come from error. This allows room for experimentation and the creation of possible solutions, an environment that is ideal for learning. VATSIM has become quite a vibrant community and it is common to see players eventually progressing to attain their Pilot Wings or even become career pilots.
I was first caught on and intrigued by the concept of a “internet passport”, as it consumed a whole possibility of social implications that it could bring to the online sphere. Much like the what the article suggests, the internet passport would serve as a means to maintain law and order in a largely anonymous and unaccountable sphere that the internet establishes. Think about it, that might mean that one gets to track the sites where people go to, which ultimately suggests the propensity to limit people from engaging in sites that are criminal – the stopping of perhaps unwholistic crimes (online crimes, illegal banking, trade, human trafficking services, drugs, pornography, etc.). The possibility seems far-reaching. Taking on another perspective, the internet passport would indirectly serve to bring back accountability back to internet users, and a restriction to the individual to the ‘one self’, instead of many selves (a Boyd perspective over Turkle’s perspective on selves). Yet the article suggests the call to refute such an establishment of a policing system in “internet passport”, deeming it as an outrageous probe into one’s privacy, and a stab to the very democracy that anonymity poses.
On another note, I’m also pondering what a Marxian perspective on the social formation of reality and meaning making that this week’s readings poses. Could the formation and profiling of many identities that Turkle proposes be yet another form of false consciousness that is diverging people from their species being? Of course, that might mean taking on a Boydian-Platonian perspective on the self and the soul. But, are the worldly pursuits, and the various ‘dividuality’ that comes along with media and technical advancements distracting human kind from the very essence of its being?
James Ang
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games.
An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game.
Reading Turkle’s article led me to observe other relevant examples outside the gaming world. Such reconstruction of self can be extended to the internet community. In the internet community though, users reconstruct their identities in other ways. They can do so by using interesting usernames and most importantly, display their personality through the internet comments they post. An example of this can be seen in Saturday Night Live skit on internet comments.
In her article, “Don’t hate the player, Hate the game”: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft” Lisa Nakamura discusses how ‘worker players’ within the game of world of Warcraft are becoming discriminated against in terms of race. Her focus is not on the game itself, but rather on the racialization players bring to the game, breaking the players into 2 distinct groups: leisure players and worker players. Worker players “produce and sell virtual goods such as weapons, garments, animals and even their own leveled-up avatars or virtual bodies to other players for real world money” this resentment against workers-players had led to many being targeted and even killed online. In addition, the game world of Warcraft also allows the players to create their own digital rhetoric which they can then post online creating a forum for those who have the same opinion to come together in agreement without fear of prejudice.
Turkle’s focus on the reconstruction of identities on online media such as in MUD games and on social media sites can be related to the fulfillment of humans’ desires.
We can link this to Horkheimer and Adorno’s ideas of cinematography achieving desires through on-screen heroes to derive satisfaction, where using social media to share and upload posts on social causes, for instance, allow users to get a sense of satisfaction from seemingly being part of these social causes without actually physically participating in them. MUD games also allow users to have control over their online personas thus giving them the opportunity to fulfill their desires.
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games.
An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBMtKgemIg
This is about as cool, and as freaky as it can be about “technology”. Perhaps Turkle’s betwixt and between theory can be extended to talk about the human need to “transcend”. To transcend our ordinary lives, to become the superheroes that we always wanted to take on (I know I imagine myself to think I have a magic wand, going around the house swishing an elaborately decorated chopstick, haha) by appropriating the online or virtual identities to ways that we want them to be like, without restraint, without the need to be judged: transcending all boundaries.
I’d figured Sherry Turkle’s point about constructions and reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality is rather true. Virtual reality could be seen as a way of extending man’s mental capability where the online realm is able to provide the endless possibility where anything is possible. Turkle introduced examples of role playing games like Second Life where one could replicate himself to the virtual world or even reconstruct an opposing figure (from one’s traits in reality). While it’s important to acknowledge the importance of creating a ‘second life’ in the virtual (regardless of being true to your true self or not), virtual reality has imperatively ushered in the notion of self-expression. Due to the complexity of interaction of social actors in reality or online, a human in contemporary society have adopt several identities. This is not to say that by having to switch identities would erode one’s true self, but it shows the intricate social relations virtual reality has accidentally brought in. Life is only as complex as the many identities that fills up our little soul.
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games. An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game.
Reading Turkle’s article led me to observe other relevant examples outside the gaming world. Such reconstruction of self can be extended to the internet community. In the internet community though, users reconstruct their identities in other ways. They can do so by using interesting usernames and most importantly, display their personality through the internet comments they post. An example of this can be seen in Saturday Night Live skit on internet comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBMtKgemIg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81FllbAcjqg
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games.
An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game.
Reading Turkle’s article led me to observe other relevant examples outside the gaming world. Such reconstruction of self can be extended to the internet community. In the internet community though, users reconstruct their identities in other ways. They can do so by using interesting usernames and most importantly, display their personality through the internet comments they post. An example of this can be seen in Saturday Night Live skit on internet comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBMtKgemIg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81FllbAcjqg
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games.
An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBMtKgemIg
Reading Turkle’s article led me to observe other relevant examples outside the gaming world. Such reconstruction of self can be extended to the internet community. In the internet community though, users reconstruct their identities in other ways. They can do so by using interesting usernames and most importantly, display their personality through the internet comments they post. An example of this can be seen in Saturday Night Live skit on internet comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81FllbAcjqg
In her article, boyd contrasts the dynamics of interactions that take place in physical and online, or digital, realms. These interactions occur within, and are framed by, the different environmental contexts present in these two contrasting realms. Significantly, online users, having been accustomed to the structural dynamics of the physical landscape, often mistakenly apply these dynamics to their online conversations. For instance, people interacting in the physical realm “expect a certain level of privacy and control over their words”, due to their socialized experiences of social interactions as “fleeting and immobile”. Carrying such expectations to the digital realm is inherently problematic, as it is made up of a different “architecture” and functions in a different environmental context.
Numerous instances of such misplaced expectations may be observed. I recall the derogatory comments recently made online by Briton Anton Casey against local public transport users. The derisory comments made by Amy Cheong against Malays and their wedding practices also come to mind. These comments were conceivably made off the cuff, with no regard for or consciousness of their implications. Notably, the flippant attitude with which the comments were made can be expected to be excused or overlooked if the comments were made privately, in the physical realm. Applying this expectation to the digital realm however, is a completely different matter, due to the extensive reach and public-ness of the comments. Additionally, the archival of the comments can be observed to affect the protagonists long after the initial postings. When fleeting impressions morph insidiously into archived records, users may also be exposed to the manipulation of the situational context in which their interactions were initially made. The permanence of online interactions results in surprise when interactions of yore are exposed or worse, used against them
boyd also expounds on the negativities of the explosion of information. One problem is the difficulty of verifying the validity of the information encountered. This is especially problematic as the increasing democratization of the online sphere allows virtually anyone, regardless of status and knowledge, to post anything online.
In my opinion, the more serious problem is the decreasing control one has over the representation of his online self. When we have limited say on how we appear online, we run the risk of being unfairly discredited or portrayed by users pursuing an agenda. On a personal note, this has cultivated a wariness of online interactions, often resulting in me highly curtailing my online self for fear of inadvertently revealing information that could be used against me.
boyd highlights the use of multiple online accounts to cope with online misrepresentation of one’s self. Such association of “particular accounts with particular contexts” is commonly observed in the use of different email accounts for different contexts. With the explosion of social media, many Facebook users also maintain more than one account, using the range of accounts to present different facets of their selves. I have even encountered friends who create accounts to flirt with and discreetly stalk their “objects of desire”. A particular friend’s interactions through such an account even culminated in physical meetings, as well as a romance. This is indeed intriguing, as it illustrates the intertwining of the digital and physical realms. The notion of reality becomes contested and redefined, with the digital realm increasingly becoming as “real” as the physical realm. Indeed, digital interactions can give rise to physical consequences. This is indicative of Jean Baudrillard’s conception of postmodern societies, where mediated spheres may be “more real than the real”. This echoes Turkle’s article, in which she discusses the reality of MUDs. These are spaces in which the “real” is intertwined with the virtual, the two having an intimate relationship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2lMZGez5M0
I read with great interests with regards to Sherry Turkles article about MUD gaming and her point about the virtual reality as not being real, but having a relationship to the ‘real’. Similar to the MUD community is the VATSIM community. The VATSIM community is essentially an online community of Flight Simulator and Air Traffic Controller Simulator enthusiasts. Real players assume the roles of pilots and air traffic controllers as they interact with each other in a virtual flying world. What is significant is that this allows many people to have ‘real’ flying experiences that would normally be out of reach due to the expense/requirements needed to fly in real-life.
VATSIM also allows players to try various manoeuvres, techniques without the real-life consequences that may come from error. This allows room for experimentation and the creation of possible solutions, an environment that is ideal for learning. VATSIM has become quite a vibrant community and it is common to see players eventually progressing to attain their Pilot Wings or even become career pilots.
I’ve attached a link to an article that debates about the benefits and disadvantages of having what our Prof was mentioning about a “internet passport”. (See: http://www.yalelawtech.org/anonymity-online-identity/intneret-passport/)
I was first caught on and intrigued by the concept of a “internet passport”, as it consumed a whole possibility of social implications that it could bring to the online sphere. Much like the what the article suggests, the internet passport would serve as a means to maintain law and order in a largely anonymous and unaccountable sphere that the internet establishes. Think about it, that might mean that one gets to track the sites where people go to, which ultimately suggests the propensity to limit people from engaging in sites that are criminal – the stopping of perhaps unwholistic crimes (online crimes, illegal banking, trade, human trafficking services, drugs, pornography, etc.). The possibility seems far-reaching. Taking on another perspective, the internet passport would indirectly serve to bring back accountability back to internet users, and a restriction to the individual to the ‘one self’, instead of many selves (a Boyd perspective over Turkle’s perspective on selves). Yet the article suggests the call to refute such an establishment of a policing system in “internet passport”, deeming it as an outrageous probe into one’s privacy, and a stab to the very democracy that anonymity poses.
On another note, I’m also pondering what a Marxian perspective on the social formation of reality and meaning making that this week’s readings poses. Could the formation and profiling of many identities that Turkle proposes be yet another form of false consciousness that is diverging people from their species being? Of course, that might mean taking on a Boydian-Platonian perspective on the self and the soul. But, are the worldly pursuits, and the various ‘dividuality’ that comes along with media and technical advancements distracting human kind from the very essence of its being?
Turkle’s article focuses on the way that users on MUD games are able to provide users to reconstruct their identity. MUDs thus allow users to play with their roles and their self in ways that beyond the limitation of the physical world. For example, male users can fulfil their fantasy of being a women by playing as a female character on MUD games, nerds can be the cool and popular characters they wish to be on MUD games. What they have fantasize about, can be fulfil in MUD games.
An example of such representation can be seen in a South Park episode involving the world of warcraft, whereby there is a reconstruction of the character’s identity via the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBMtKgemIg
Reading Turkle’s article led me to observe other relevant examples outside the gaming world. Such reconstruction of self can be extended to the internet community. In the internet community though, users reconstruct their identities in other ways. They can do so by using interesting usernames and most importantly, display their personality through the internet comments they post. An example of this can be seen in Saturday Night Live skit on internet comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81FllbAcjqg