Writing Exercise 10

What a great series of posts this was! I enjoyed his drawings, observations, and humor. His experiment was long and arduous. I can’t imagine anyone I know completing such a task. You can pick up a lot of themes from his entries. They are so many topics covered by the author/artist. And I do not believe that I can extrapolate enough concepts from just one of his entries. I will instead comment on one theme exemplified in his experiment and other media we have witnessed: vanity







Vanity- One of his commentors said that they put on a different persona to represent themselves online. In our current, super-connected age, people must take part in a self-consciousness dictated by Internet usage. This new Net Self-Conciousness makes people do silly things. Face book is the most recognized forum for this dynamic.

People have to represent themselves in a profile pic. “What will my profile picture say about me?” is the question people ask themselves when selecting one. They may choose an image from popular culture, such as Scarface, to convey a “gangster-ass” image to the people who may look them up. I see a lot of people doing the Blackberry self-portrait, where they obviously shot themselves in their most attractive state. You know they tried multiple times when one of their albums has their chosen face all over it. Girls usually do this provocative lip pursing while guys do some lame ass hardcore, emotionless stare. People have to worry about how they look to other people when they use social networking sites.

Another commenter, made the statement that a lot of mean things occur on the Internet. People do not have to see to whom they are typing. People do not have to look at the nuances of a facial expression as they curse someone out via the Internet. People don’t have to feel the physical awkwardness of picking someone up when they “holler” at someone via Face book. They fulfill expectations of how communication is going while it may not be going that way at all. Someone may be cussing someone out, thinking they are intimidating, while the people on the receiving end are mocking the enraged typist. You may feel sexy as you cheat on your spouse by typing into Face book chat, but it’s not too sexy…. at least for other people to look at.