05-20-2009, 03:39 PM
I had to jump in here. Funny, I spent most of my day with a friend down at the DMV in Hilo - written test, three hours later, driving test - waiting, and reading. I'm in process of writing a book and recently acquired a book entitled: The Essay Connection by Lynn Z. Bloom. I was reading a chapter entitled: Sherry Turkle, How Computers Change the Way We Think.
Synchronistically to this thread, there was a section on Avatars or a Self? Here is what it says on this subject:
Chat rooms, role-playing games and other technological venues offer us many different contexts for presenting ourselves online. Those possibilities are particularly important for adolescents because they offer what Erik Erikson described as a moratorium, a time out or safe space for the personal experimentation that is so crucial for adolescent development. Our dangerous world - with crime, terrorism, drugs and AIDS offers little in the way of safe spaces. Online worlds can provide valuable spaces for identity play.
But some people who gain fluency in expressing multiple aspects for self may find it harder to develop authentic selves. Some children who write narratives for their screen avatars may grow up with too little experience of how to share their real feelings with other people. For those who are lonely yet afraid of intimacy, information technology has made it possible to have the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship.
______________________
This may or may not seem relevant to this thread, but wait, I'm going to make a point and a connection here.
The computer was designed as a computational tool, but rapidly became a social tool. Therefore, in it's evolving expression, it can be wielded as a weapon.
I've personally dealt with a person who liked to "hide" behind the empowerment of their false Internet identity and wield their computer as a weapon. It's easy to express, especially name calling and threats, when you're hiding behind the laptop monitor vs. a person to person conversation.
It's one thing for adolescents to have a "safe place to play with their identity" yet another for grown people to engage in juvenile, or worse, threatening behavior.
My personal choice is to "let it go"; kind of like walking away from a name calling maniac on the street. Just walk away and get in the car....let them "find their identity" playing with someone else. And, hopefully in the process they discover their authentic self.
Peace - Anna
Synchronistically to this thread, there was a section on Avatars or a Self? Here is what it says on this subject:
Chat rooms, role-playing games and other technological venues offer us many different contexts for presenting ourselves online. Those possibilities are particularly important for adolescents because they offer what Erik Erikson described as a moratorium, a time out or safe space for the personal experimentation that is so crucial for adolescent development. Our dangerous world - with crime, terrorism, drugs and AIDS offers little in the way of safe spaces. Online worlds can provide valuable spaces for identity play.
But some people who gain fluency in expressing multiple aspects for self may find it harder to develop authentic selves. Some children who write narratives for their screen avatars may grow up with too little experience of how to share their real feelings with other people. For those who are lonely yet afraid of intimacy, information technology has made it possible to have the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship.
______________________
This may or may not seem relevant to this thread, but wait, I'm going to make a point and a connection here.
The computer was designed as a computational tool, but rapidly became a social tool. Therefore, in it's evolving expression, it can be wielded as a weapon.
I've personally dealt with a person who liked to "hide" behind the empowerment of their false Internet identity and wield their computer as a weapon. It's easy to express, especially name calling and threats, when you're hiding behind the laptop monitor vs. a person to person conversation.
It's one thing for adolescents to have a "safe place to play with their identity" yet another for grown people to engage in juvenile, or worse, threatening behavior.
My personal choice is to "let it go"; kind of like walking away from a name calling maniac on the street. Just walk away and get in the car....let them "find their identity" playing with someone else. And, hopefully in the process they discover their authentic self.
Peace - Anna