I.D. / self :: the new "real"

Description:

In this digital age in which Internet and online activities are part of the daily routine for most people, the construction of online identities becomes an extremely relevant issue. Over the years, with the implementation of more and more new types of Internet communities, such as blogs, social networking sites, and virtual worlds, it has become a much easier process to construct new identities for ones self. As such, many people have developed concerns as to whether people are anything at all like the projections that they have created for themselves through various online media. Or put simply, they wonder—and worry about—the validity of such projections, and it almost becomes natural instinct to wonder what someone is really like on the other side of the Internet connection. Thus, a distinction is often made: the online personas are deemed unreal or even fake, while only the unseen person typing at his/her keyboard—the originator of these personas—is deemed real. However, is this distinction fair? Should self-created online identities that differ from ones physical self automatically be dismissed as fake? Or are these alternate identities, in fact, actually quite real?

Credits:

Some images and design elements borrowed from:

-- Facebook.com
-- MySpace.com
-- AIM / AOL LCC
-- World of Warcraft / Blizzard Entertainment
-- Apple Inc.

Music borrowed from:

-- Perfume (Tokuma Japan Communications Co., Ltd.)
-- capsule (Yamaha Music Communications Co., Ltd.)
-- Nakata Yasutaka

All copyrighted materials used under fair use, to the best of my knowledge.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• on-line
• online
• identity
• id
• i.d.
• facebook
• aim
• internet
• wow
• world
• of
• warcraft
• animation
• myspace
• digital
• rhetoric
• social
• media
• web
• 2.0

[marcokelly86]

Awesome!