number three

I use facebook and myspace. but i used to use myspace and facebook, before that it was "i use myspace but i just signed up with facebook, y'know... to check it out" etc etc. Now i always check facebook over myspace. I open three taps in firefox: hotmail, facebook, myspace. It used to be hotmail, myspace, facebook.

Why is this interesting? what are you saying??

My identity on the internet is actually more important than i realise. I wouldn't really call my self "self-obsessed", "egotistical" or anything. Certainly a little introverted but i would assume that i am actually fairly humble like a lot of people. I certainly don't spend too much time pimping out or adding to my facebook and myspace accounts. I have done some, yes, but only once or twice etc. In a way these social networking sites are a point for the kids who used to make personal sites, use ICQ, old forums and the like to communicate and create an online identity. Only now it is used to create an identity with a bit of a glow to it, a bit of style. it's not just you, it's you plus one. I can omit or manipulate my image to my liking. Other users have the some power to influence this with comments and photos but when it really comes down to it... i call the shots. I think a sense of power to take control of your identity in a new way is very exciting, with possible ramifications we may never really fathom. It also relates to my previous post regarding how many keys and locks i have on the internet vs in my real life. I don't use second life and i don't think it's for me but i said the same thing about myspace. It also brings up another issue that was in "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (link in previous post) where i think he says something about the citizen of the metropolis must be very self conscious in order to survive in the metropolis. They really must do all they can to be individual and not one of a faceless mass.

I think this ties in with Mark Poster's essay. It may be that we are adjusting ourselves even down to our own self image so that it has value more like a commodity and less like a err... more earthly human being. We even have barcodes for ourselves. Tax file numbers, passport numbers, centrelink numbers, voter registry numbers etc etc are all barcodes of individuals.

So we create little individualised versions of ourselves and our life's works to make is stand out of the crowd, even in the smallest ways. I do agree with the element of memory and biography with this application of new media. Even a website dedicated to someone's holiday to the snow is a form of history, with a first hand account of an event and sometimes photographs.

I can't remember if it was during this lecture that i talked about the Ruth Cracknell Autobiography i read in first year sociology. To a certain extent, i have grown up with Ruth Cracknell. Although i always see her as a skinny, grey-haired pensioner, i've seen many of her works. What i found most interesting about her story was how she grew up, the holidays she went on, the houses lived in, jobs etc. These things add life to what i know of sydney. I spent a lot of time in sydney growing up. My grand parents moved from a farm in Griffith NSW when i was four to a big victorian house in Haberfield, sydney. I spent many weekends and school holidays there as it was so close to where my family and i lived in canberra. There are events in my memory, and, in a way, similar to those of Ruth Cracknell, that i think are equally as interesting as an historical account.

Perhaps we fell the need to display ourselves more because we are being seen more. More closed circuit television, more photos, more photos being distributed, more online videos, more ads telling us how to live, more ads about life that are really just for sugar or petrol or whatever. Perceived personal identity will ALWAYS be important in some way.

---I have just realised that i am mixing weeks three, four and five together in these three blogs i am catching up on. apologies, stick with me.---

I don't mind if an employer googles me or searches for me on facebook, provided they bare in mind that, like who i am in my resume and in my interview, i am someone different when i am in different company and in a different location. If my facebook profile, however, has a photo of me wasted-as-sin punching bongs on the roof at 5AM they should remember that, and i should remember that people will find out about parts of me in some way or another anyway.The internet has merely given us a way to adapt to a more global world. That said i still think we should remember where the "real" world is and where the digital world is. I am firm believer that there are some things on this earth that not only digital technology but also science and mathematics cannot replicate, replace or explain - it provides balance.


And now for something completely different. These three youtube videos recently came back into my life:




The above is dedicated to Tom.



-out-