Always On By Turkle: Article Analysis

I took a look at the store and people pay money to customize everything about their avatars. Some people use their avatars as extensions of their personality or to show parts of themselves that they would not show in real life; while others make their avatars completely different from themselves. The choices are endless and people seem to spend a lot of time trying to make their avatar perfect. In Tom Boellstorff’s “Personhood”chapter of his book Coming of Age in Second Life Boellstorff describes how people make avatars that are completely different from themselves. He notes that one Second Life player remarked that in real life they are weak while in Second Life they appear strong. Along with this there is an option to pay a monthly fee and you are able to build rooms. People can create what they want their life to look like verses what their life is actually like. But, it is not just the fact that people can customize their own avatar but they people can create their own worlds along with their own rooms. What this reminds me of is The Sims where you could create your own world and people would spend days doing so. I spent some time looking at the different landscapes that people created for people to chat in. It made me think about how much time people spent planning out what they wanted their world to look like. Much like with software that lets people design buildings and rooms online the building part of Second Life lets people bring their ideas to virtual life. The builders are bringing their own material culture into their own virtual world. However, unlike the programs used to design jewelry, buildings, and rooms on computers now these landscapes will never be brought into the real world. But as Mike Press explains in his article “Handmade Futures: The Emerging Role of Craft Knowledge in Our Digital Culture” the use of computers to design is becoming a craft itself.

As a person goes through their life, they encounter many choices and options. The most obvious ones are what they will wear, eat, or do for each day of their life. Everything that they do, even the most simple decisions, can and will impact them and who they are as a person. This will become a part of their identity. However, as the social beings humans are, their identities can be effected by those around them, virtually and physically. Most especially, every person’s identity is affected by the opinions and thoughts of others which can be expressed online, through verbal comments, and body language. This causes each person to question themselves and attempt to view themselves from the eyes of others. And when people question their identities

Turkle explains how we are losing ourselves to our technology, putting more reliance on technology then our own peers. Distinguishing between identity and performance of identity is a difficult task as an adolescent because they are portrayed as the same thing. However, the idea of flexibility and the advancing of technology helps the adolescents to transition between variety of identities in order to find their one true authentic identity.

In the book The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection, Michael Harris argues that as technology progresses society loses the experience of lacking. He continues to illustrate this point by saying we will eventually reach a time when true solitude is an outdated concept. Harris attempts to answer what exactly it means to be a part of the last generation that remembers life with and without the internet. Within each chapter, Harris discusses the fast-paced technological revolution with three themes becoming prevalent: Authenticity,

The essay itself, however, begins and ends with references to a scene toward the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey in which Dave goes about “calmly, coldly disconnecting” the computer HAL’s memory controls, effectively resetting the machine. He depicts this scene as a hard and emotionless human more or less murdering a pleading and terrified machine. Carr sees this as a warning to the viewers of losing parts of themselves that make them inherently human to machines. However, Carr neglects a part of today’s internet use that has had a great impact: the ease with which people can now share their experiences, thoughts, and creations. For example, many think of art as something inherently human, and it is now far easier than ever for people to share their creative pursuits and find new inspiration. When people use drawing tablets and sound software and photo editors, these things progress more. The plethora of social media accounts dedicated to creative pursuits influences the way many use computers. Another use to consider would be social media such as Instagram and Facebook. It has millions of users, many of whom share their daily experiences. Human thoughts, experiences, and creations are archived in massive amounts on the internet, and this type of use helps develop its progression in a significant way. While today’s technology is less advanced than that shown in 2001, I think it is worth noting the ways the internet helps people become more

Who I am? Personally, I believe that a person’s identity can take only one of two routes. One, a person’s identity can change within that person’s life. Who I am now, is not necessarily who I was when I was younger. Experience can and will likely modify our identities. Therefore, experience can solidify our personal identification or it can weaken our personal identification. And as such, individuals and their perspectives are always evolving, or at the very least, they should evolve over time. Although there are some identities that evolve throughout one’s lifetime; there are some identities that remain consistent. Two, some identities cannot and will not change. So identities are socially and/or politically forces upon you, some identities are genetically assigned to you, and some you choose to keep. No matter the reason or reasons, these identities have been and will be consist within your lifespan. But, how you deal with them is up to you as an individual.

This paper examines the formation of the identity in the late modern society compared to the traditional society. There has a been high-tech development in our present society, which makes communication among people easier. In order to reach a better understanding of what characterizes identity formation in the late modern society, theories by Anthony Giddens and Erving Goffman will be used. Today, we have the opportunity to create our own virtual identity through social media. This paper analyses the American Documentary Catfish, with particular reference to relevant non-fiction and fiction codes. Catfish is a magnificent specimen of how easy identity can be faked on social media. The analysis shows that sociologist’ theories is an important

These two worlds collide and people have difficulties distinguishing what’s real and what’s not. This can be both bad and good. It is detrimental to the real world, but if the real world is truly in a state that cannot be replenished then what is most important is the well being of the people still alive. If people can no longer find meaning in the real world, then at least they can find meaning in a virtual

Could you live off the grid? To actively remove all tech from your life? There is no doubt that our digital society is expanding at a rapid rate, sometimes finding it difficult to keep up with the latest and greatest. That is why many Americans are choosing to abandon all modern technology for a simpler way of living. In a two-part series from Seeker Stories called Could You Handle Living Off the Grid? (2015), currently on YouTube, explores one family’s journey to actively remove themselves from the grid. Nick Fouch and Esther Emery, who along with their three children, move into the backwoods of eastern Idaho; no electricity; no running water; no means of communication. Obviously, some sacrifices had to be made in order to accomplish what they set out to do, that is, to be connected to each again on an interpersonal level. The series poses interesting questions about the loss of family togetherness at the expense of digital connectivity and observes a sort of digital withdraw when that connectivity is stripped away. Revealing about how society has become highly dependent to our tech, identifying more with a smartphone then our own family and friends. Tech, while useful to a large degree, establishes our online presence based on a system of curated profiles that are essentially digital façades of true identity, this is significant because perhaps our personal identity, while at one point was only influenced by unique characteristics, is slowly being

Living a virtual life can be great in the beginning until you abandon your true existence. In the generation we live in now, virtual living is our morning coffee. When you walk outside nowadays, every direction you may look, someone is on their phone. What could they be doing that is so interesting? Reading a story? Maybe, but more than likely that is not the case.

In “Growing Up Tethered,” Turkle addresses, “This kind of identity work can take place wherever you create an avatar…statement not only about who you are but who you wanna be” (245) Social media is a place where many change their characters in order to have a judgment free zone and a good relationship with the people watching behind the screen. Catfishing is an example of people pretending to be someone else just to get a "relationship" out of it. People are not only creating someone who they aren't in real life but others are also stealing people's identities which is a crime. In “Growing Up Tethered,” Turkle points out, “Separation is being reinvented” (237) Due to these fake profiles nobody can trust a relationship between friends or mates that is being run by the media. This is causing disconnection between people that are communication through technology. People depend too much on everyone going well because they have in mind that since there are many forms of contacting someone nowadays that they won't ever lose touch. Also in “Growing Up Tethered,” he states, “Parents want their children to answer their phones but adolescents need to separate” (238) Even the youngest kids now have some sort of electronic device whether it’s a phone or a kids tablet. When a teen is going out with their friends the parents contact them every second to make sure

Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic article are an interesting, but also a crucial article. They are showing how prospective students are underestimating the investment of their college degree, and also how that can affect their lifetime earnings. It is obvious that not everyone will be able to afford a four-year college degree, but that’s why Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic are talking about how important it is to choose the right institution and major, to be able to know if it is a possibility to get a degree, and not just a waste of time and money.

Thieke’s (2013) article states, Journalists and businesspeople aren’t all that different from each other, much as we like to think they are. Both have the same goal: to persuade and influence. (No editor, producer or journalist will admit to this, of course. They’ll say that it’s the truth they’re after. But they do influence, whether intentionally or not.) And she lists what distinguishes a journalist from the business, according to her journalist have a strong code of ethics while the business respond to their customer and or owners.

“Unplugging” from the Internet isn’t about restoring the self so much as it about stifling the desire for autonomy that technology can inspire. (Jurgenson. N, 2013). All of us live in an increasing media- literate world. News are delivered by radio, print, television and on online media and people make constant opinions and suggestions about the same, which kind of has become a daily routine. I come from a country where there are two types of people; people who have accepted and live their lives by and with media (any form) around them and the other kind of people are the ones that either don’t have access or are reluctant to accept the media because they don’t want to be ruled again by “western culture”. Talking about what Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tried doing in Chandauli, a rural village in India was to bring the version of the internet with Facebook as the prominent part of the media education.

In Turkle's article "Identity in the Age of the Internet," she questions "Why grant such superior status to the self that has the body, when the selves that don't have bodies are able to have different kinds of experiences?" Turkle gives many great details and examples of the things that can happen when people are allowed to express themselves as any character that they wish which enables them to have experiences that may be different then the ones from their everyday life. In addition Dale Spender examines in her article "Gender Bending," how men and women are viewed differently online as well as offline. These articles arises the thought of how might Spender answer the question