After reading Bell’s piece on construction of identity online, I wanted to write a piece about online dating websites. Online dating has become very popular and in 2004 was considered the highest grossing internet industry other than pornography. Why is internet dating so popular? According to Bell, people have the ability to leave their insecurities at the door and either create a completely new persona or reveal truths about themselves they feel they cannot do in person.
The internet allows for freedom. My roommate, who is an attractive, young woman, always had issues with confidence. She did not like talking to men in person and found that she would “freeze” up when confronted with one. She had all the great qualities men were looking for, but never seemed to make the initiative to date a man. One night we were sitting on the computer and she decided to reveal to me that she had paid for a Match.com profile. We checked out the profile and I was amazed; she seemed like a totally different woman! She had many dates (online) and was surprisingly able to talk to them and share information she had never been comfortable sharing with people in person.
Another reason online identities are useful is because they enable you to be your true self. For example, I come from a very small town where everyone knows each other. My best friend had went away to college and came out about being a lesbian, but she didn’t want to tell anyone and she was embarrassed to date. Coming from a small town she thought that no one would understand her and she would be outcasted. Online, she was able to be honest with herself and be truthful about her sexuality. The internet allowed her and gave her the confidence to connect with other females. This is such a positive experience because it gave her the opportunity and the power to create her true persona.
The Dictionary.com definition of Procrastinating is "to put off till another day or time; defer; delay." Many people procrastinate things like school work and other tasks that they do not want to do. I can see already that many people in this class myself included waited until the last minute to do their blog posts because until yesterday their were very few posts and today there have been sixty or seventy and the day is not over.
If you need some more help procrastinating then I am going to help you out:
Just click the link and then in the top left corner click Stumble! and you will find yourself procrastinating like never before.
This website lets you click the Stumble! button and takes you to a random webpage. It can be anything from a computer game, to a puzzle, a video a funny quote, a picture or actually come to think of it anything. It is completely random unless you select what your interests are. In which case it will be limited to only the selections you make.
In the Sean Redmond reading about visual regime and how celebrities are always being followed around by paparazzi and having pictures taken of them. I think it is pretty sad that many people make celebrities lives the mainstay of their days and are always up to date of who is dating who and who went to the club last night. The biggest story in the news right now is the earthquake in Haiti but the biggest story before that was the Tiger Woods scandal. People use Tabloids and the internet to procrastinate their work and try to figure out what is going on in the lives of celebrities today.
The Tiger Woods scandal is a big deal in the sports world right now and many people look up to him, but I feel like enough is enough and let the guy have some privacy because he knows he messed up he does not need everyone reminding him of what he did wrong every second of the day.
I think we find the lives of celebrities so interesting because we look up to them and they are always around on the covers of magazines, on T.V. and on billboards. Celebrities are everywhere and they are people to and sometimes I am sure that they could use some space away from all of their fans.
This website is a way for me to procrastinate in other ways and keeps me away from all of the celebrities in music and movies. I encourage you to try it out and Stumble upon something other than famous people.
It is really amazing to think about how much our culture has been affected by the internet. My parents refer to the internet as “another world” that we youngins’ live under the influence of. We are the cyber generation, and for ONCE know more than our parents do about SOMETHING. It took several years for my mom to even get the hang of E-mail, and for me, probably only an hour. The internet has opened up so much for our society in many ways. Not only does it allow us to search for jobs, cars, and houses but additionally it has expanded the realm of possibilities in the world of dating. We recently discussed David Bell’s article about the cyber world. It is noted that the internet has had a profound effect on our society and culture. Bell suggests that the internet (specifically personal web pages) allow people to identify themselves in any way that they want. As well, it “allows people to reveal previously hidden aspects of their identities.”
Bringing Down the House, a comedy featuring Queen Latifah and Steve Martin, is a film about two individuals who meet online, and begin “cyber dating.” What is most interesting about this movie is the perceptions that the couple has of one another through the way that they each identify themselves. This film takes a comedic look at a cyber relationship gone wrong. It could be assumed that the film intentionally attempts to warn people of the dangers of the internet. Because of its extraordinary hold on our society, many at one point (maybe even presently) perceive the internet to be too phenomenal to have any flaws. Viewers of this funny film could have different perceptions of it’s intent. Fans argue that it highlights the mistakes that any internet user could make. Critics may argue the opposite: that it illustrates a unrealistic situation of cyber dating.
As Bell and Lisa Nakamara in CyberTypes propose, race, ethnicity, and identity can all be exposed and existent online, unlike many seem to believe. However, its up to the online user to decide how and what part of your identity you want to expose to the web. In Bringing Down the House, Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) and Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah) begin corresponding via internet in a chat room and later through email. Both are guilty of misrepresenting themselves, which is later revealed on their first blind date. When exchanging physical descriptions of each other, Peter (who has a head full of white hair) describes himself as having “boyish blonde hair” with an “athletic built” for a body. Charlene sends Peter a picture of herself but fails to mention that she is really the convict in the background of the photo in handcuffs, instead of the cute blonde in the front. The movie takes a funny twist when they finally meet and Charlene’s real reason for cyber chatting was to make use of Peter’s skills as an attorney.
This film is a comedic example of the impact that the internet has had on our culture. I would be interested in finding out how many people out there, misrepresent themselves online. Who wouldn’t, when you could be anyone you want? Well, as long as you never come face to face with those that you’re interacting with.
