David's CHS 202 Blog - Clemson University

Today in class, we discussed the first chapter of the new book we are reading by David Weinberger: Small Pieces Loosely Joined. The book, which is a social commentary discusses some of the more revolutionary features of the web in a non-typical, non-linear fashion. The first chapter of the book makes some observations on the phenomenon of people assuming identities on the web. Rather than act like they might in real life as they talk to others through Instant Messenging or in creating web pages, web users actually 'try out' new identities, or even ideas, on the web. I have to confess that I have been a person to try out new thoughts and identities in the faceless realm of the web. In chat rooms, as a kid, I sometimes admitted to being older than I really was, just so the older, 'cooler' people would even carry on a conversation with me. Sometimes, when talking to friends of mine from everyday life, I would find myself saying things that I probably never would say to their faces - some good, and some bad. After awhile of doing this, I realized it probably wasn't making me a very strong person in terms of real-world social skills and decided I needed to establish a policy of not saying things through AIM that I would not be willing to say to a person's face. It's much easier to hide behind your words in any mode of communication that does not allow for the communicants to observe the other's body language, facial features, etc. For some, that can create major social problems - perhaps I shall get more into that in a later blog...if I ever get around to it!