When it comes to Myspace and Facebook, I don’t really think that I distort myself in any tremendous way. I am straight-forward about my likes and dislikes, goals and aspirations, heroes…and the like. Actually, I think it is fair to say that some people could gain more insight into the way I think by viewing either of my pages than by having a couple sit down visits with me. For one, not one of the friends that I spend every Friday Girls Night Out with knows that I love tire swings, or that I once ate play dough for two dollars. Actually, I don’t know that anyone other than my high school friends know that. Not to imply that I did that in high school……
But then, it is true that I am not always brutally honest in my online depiction of myself. While I will candidly admit that I did eat play dough for money, I do have a minor obsession with Animal Planet, and I LOVE old hardware stores with wood floors- there is not a chance that I would ever share with the online ‘world’ the times when I feel like locking my boyfriend out of our house, I feel let down by family or friends, or perchancem, am worried about a grade. That is when my honestly fails me. So does this fall into dishonestly, or merely omitting portions of the truth, leaning towards a form of anonmity? Is the less-than-accurate portrayal of myself equal misrepresentation, and thus falsifying the way in which others perceive me? Does the internet act as a place where we can present only the parts of ourselves that we deem acceptable to share?
The answer is yes. But then, I would vehemently argue that it is not any different than face to face. Dr. Dollar (one of my favorite professors of all time) said the other day, “I used to be reluctant to use the Internet as means of communication, I mean how do you know that the person on Facebook is telling you the truth, how do you know they are being real about who they are? That is why I value face-to-face. Then I realized that you don’t even know that the person you are talking to in person is being 100% honest at all times.” She brings up an excellent point I believe. We are a cliche society in some ways. We walk through our busy days, and while we do pause to greet those we encounter, it is with the traditional- “Hello, how are you?” To which, of course, each person responses with “Great, good, doing well, couldn’t complain..and so on. In doing so we present the part of ourselves that is positive, because sure- in comparison to someone in less than fortunate circumstances, we are having a fine day. But how often is it that we truly open up, and tell the person who asked how we are really doing? (By this, of course, I do not mean our significant others, close friends, and other people who actually care..)Really what I’m trying to say is, I don’t think that Facebook or Myspace is particularly stunting to the honesty of communication for two main reasons.
1. For many people, these sites pose a unique opportunity to them to open up and really dissect what makes them THEM.
2. As a society, we practice the same formalities and glossing over of communication in person to person contact as is possible through the internet (to a great extent- though I would not claim that it is to the exact level)
HI. Good post this week. Maybe I am just saying that because it is so similar to mine… But either way, good post.
I have shared a lot of information online that I do not even talk to my friends about. At the same time, like you mentioned, there are certain genres of information that simply do not seem appropriate to share. It is strange to think about the different lives we portray given the different mediums. What was brought up in our reading assignment and again, in your blog, are the face-to-face lies that come out so naturally. I used to work with this guy that responded to “hey how are you,” with “great! never been better!”
Ugh! I avoided him like the plague.