As I answered the mid-term question on identity tourism, I realized I’ve know some people who have played different roles on games, switching gender, ethnicity, or whatever they wanted, and it seemed acceptable. Yet, I’ve also know people who have been very hurt by people pretending to be someone they were not in an online chat or other online community. What makes the situations so different? That is what inspired me to think about the different situations and explore more about how identity tourism and its role in virtual communities.
For my paper I am interested in researching and discussing identity tourism in virtual communities. I will look at what virtual communities accept and even expect identity tourism, and how other communities see identity tourism as a lie and inappropriate, to say the least.
My argument is that; even though Identity tourism is the same whether in chat rooms, communities such as facebook or twitter, or online gaming, it is only acceptable in some communities. Online gaming is one place in the virtual world where identity tourism is deemed ok, maybe even encouraged. However, when in a chat room or similar community people generally expect you to represent yourself in a real manor; they expect you to be true to yourself.
Maria Bakardjieva’s talks about online relationships, and how different people use them in different ways. I will use this article to talk about how some online relationships are real and portray the real people and how others do not, and the attitudes and feelings that these relationships cause.
Lori Kendall discusses online communities, specifically that of BlueSky, and how identity tourism works in a community such as this. People generally accept people for who they are in real life and expect people to portray a real version of themselves.
In Nakamura’s article “Race in/for Cyberspace: Identity tourism and racial passing on the internet” she discusses role playing in spaces such as LambdaMOO. Nakamura states that in LambdaMOO people are required to create an identity and the requirements there of. From this I will touch on the acceptable liberties within creating an identity in a space such as this.
Works Cited
Bakardjieva, Maria. "Virtual Togetherness: An Everyday-Life Perspective." The Cybercultures reader. Ed. David Bell and Barbara M Kennedy. 2nd. New York: Routledge, 2000. 237-253.
Kendall, Lori. ""Oh No! I'm a Nerd!": Hegemonic Masculinity on an Online Forum." Vol. 14 (2). Sage Publications, Inc., April 2000. 256-274.
Nakamura, Lisa. Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
Nakamura, Lisa. "Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity tourism and racial passing on the Internet." The Cybercultures Reader. Ed. David Bell and Barbara M Kennedy. 2nd. New York: Routledge, 2000. 297-304.
Turkle, Sherry. "Looking Toward Cyberspace: Beyond Grounded Sociology Cyberspace and Identity."
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Ada Lovelace Day: Celebrating women in technology and science - EC#1
There are countless women around the world that deserve recognition for their contributions and achievements in both technology and science. One woman who stands out in my mind is Marie Curie (1867-1934).
Marie Curie stands out for a couple of reasons. Marie Curie was a woman in science in a time when it was still very highly dominated by men. In spite of this she made some significant contributions to science and was recognized for it. She was the first woman that was given a position of Professor at the University of Paris (also known as Sorbonne). She was the first to receive two Nobel Prizes, and more than that, they were in two different areas of science. The first Nobel Prize was in the area of physics and the second in chemistry. She was also given the honor of being the first female Nobel Prize winner to have a daughter also win a Nobel Prize (in 1935, after Marie Curie’s death).
During her years of work, Curie coined the term radioactivity, and named Polonium. (She named Polonium after Poland, the country of her parents and her home country even though she was a French citizen.) Curie was honored with several honorary degrees science, medicine and law. She made major advancements in the area of radioactivity, which eventually lead to her cancer and death in 1934, at the age of 67.
Marie Curie was considered by some to be an icon in the scientific realm, and it’s not hard to see why.
To Marie Curie and all the other women who have made contributions to science and technology, are currently making contributions, or will someday contribute to science and technology… This is for you!
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve great things!
Marie Curie stands out for a couple of reasons. Marie Curie was a woman in science in a time when it was still very highly dominated by men. In spite of this she made some significant contributions to science and was recognized for it. She was the first woman that was given a position of Professor at the University of Paris (also known as Sorbonne). She was the first to receive two Nobel Prizes, and more than that, they were in two different areas of science. The first Nobel Prize was in the area of physics and the second in chemistry. She was also given the honor of being the first female Nobel Prize winner to have a daughter also win a Nobel Prize (in 1935, after Marie Curie’s death).
During her years of work, Curie coined the term radioactivity, and named Polonium. (She named Polonium after Poland, the country of her parents and her home country even though she was a French citizen.) Curie was honored with several honorary degrees science, medicine and law. She made major advancements in the area of radioactivity, which eventually lead to her cancer and death in 1934, at the age of 67.
Marie Curie was considered by some to be an icon in the scientific realm, and it’s not hard to see why.
To Marie Curie and all the other women who have made contributions to science and technology, are currently making contributions, or will someday contribute to science and technology… This is for you!
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve great things!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Blog #8 Identity Tourism in virtual communities… In what communities are alternate identities deemed okay?
As I answered the mid-term question on identity tourism, I realized I’ve know some people who have played different roles on games, switching gender, ethnicity, or whatever they wanted, and it seemed acceptable. Yet, I’ve also know people who have been very hurt by people pretending to be someone they were not in an online chat or other online community. What makes the situations so different? That is what inspired me to think about the different situations and explore more about how identity tourism and its role in virtual communities.
For my paper I was interested in researching and discussing identity tourism in virtual communities. I would like to look at what virtual communities accept and even expect identity tourism, and how other communities see identity tourism as a lie and inappropriate, to say the least.
For my paper I was interested in researching and discussing identity tourism in virtual communities. I would like to look at what virtual communities accept and even expect identity tourism, and how other communities see identity tourism as a lie and inappropriate, to say the least.
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