I thought Sherry Turkle’s article “Tinysex and Gender Trouble” was fairly interesting and very easy to read. She made a lot of valid points and helped open my eyes to the ups and downs of virtual worlds. I found to be most fascinated when she started talking about online imposters because I realize that I myself have come in contact with a few.
No matter where you go on the Internet, if you are interacting with people, you are bound to meet a few who pretend to be something that they are not. That was the case in this article with the story about Joan who turned out to really be Alex. Turkle describes the people’s reactions when they found out that their woman friend was really a man. She says, “The discovery of Alex’s deception led to shock and outrage. In some versions of the story, the anger erupts because of the initial deception-that a man had posed as a woman, that a man had won confidences as a woman” (229). I can imagine this outrage! No one likes to be deceived especially by someone they thought was their friend. From my own online experience, I have found to be deceived quite a few times in chat rooms and on instant messenger. I remember on one occasion how I was on instant messenger and though I normally don’t talk to people I don’t know, someone IMed me saying they knew me from a friend so I decided to stick around and talk. The conversation was going fine until they started talking to me about my ex-boyfriend who I was not on good terms with. I really don’t like talking about my ex, especially to people who I don’t really know too well. It turns out that I wasn’t just talking to a friend of my ex, but that I was talking to my ex. He had gone under a screen name that I didn’t know and pretended to be someone else in order to see if I would say anything bad about him. I thought that was a really low blow and it was really strange and creepy. I definitely feel for all those affected by Alex’s deceit. It is strange to share personal information with people who turn out to be someone else. I am definitely a lot more open with girls then I am with guys and to find out that I had shared a lot of my personal life with a strange guy instead of a girl would leave me feeling violated. I am glad that Sherry Turkle addressed the issue of online imposters in her article because it is a very prevalent issue today.
2 comments:
Amy, good post. I think that if my ex IMed me pretending to be someone else to see if I would bad mouth him, I'd be pissed too. However, I don't know if it is necessarily deceit to pretend to be someone else as long as you're not trying to get away with it by passing off as them (and getting something in return). When I was in middle school I used to talk to random people pretending to be a guy and sometimes being an older girl. It was just for fun being someone else for a day but I never tried to get something from them and wasn't pretending to be someone for a negative reason. Anyway, I understand your outrage! No wonder he was your ex at that point. You should have bad mouthed that son- of- a- BEEP! haha
Amy... great post. The second after I read it, I realized I was in the same situation as you were. I feel like thats a very old school thing to do by going on someone's screen name and pretending to be someone else or making up a false screen name. My friend actually pretended to be someone else and started asking me all these questions about herself just to trap me. She still wont admit it yet, I knew it was her. its crazy how people have to pretend to be someone else just to get the information they want. Looking back online has caused so many unnecessary fights. I have the same viewpoint as you, I enjoy being myself and I have never posed as anyone else except myself!
Post a Comment