Feelin' all reflective
I can't believe I'm posting so much today. Most of my online fandom life has been all about the lurking. I guess because my life has been turned upside-down lately, I've been going through some weird changes. One of them, apparantly, is the need to comment on things I'm usually pretty quiet about. And I think that's a good thing. I've even been writing in a journal! We'll see if it all lasts.
Anyways, the whole SPN contraversy has made me think about the phenomenon of on-line discourse. The fact is, even though we have a name that identifies us on-line, most of us do not have an actual relationship with the people we interact with in fandom. We know them in this context, and maybe at cons, and that's about it. We enjoy relative anonymity in on-line fandom. This allows for exchanges that may be very different in "real life." When you only know people through the internet, I think the tendency is to think of them only in the context of what they represent. It's like the person behind the screen name is not fully fleshed out. That's how it feels to me, anyways, but I'd wager that the way we communicate with someone on-line is far different than how we might communicate with them face-to-face. Alot of our humanity is unrepresented by our on-line persona.
Wow, I am pretty deep. Now, maybe sleep? Doubt it, but it's worth a shot.
Anyways, the whole SPN contraversy has made me think about the phenomenon of on-line discourse. The fact is, even though we have a name that identifies us on-line, most of us do not have an actual relationship with the people we interact with in fandom. We know them in this context, and maybe at cons, and that's about it. We enjoy relative anonymity in on-line fandom. This allows for exchanges that may be very different in "real life." When you only know people through the internet, I think the tendency is to think of them only in the context of what they represent. It's like the person behind the screen name is not fully fleshed out. That's how it feels to me, anyways, but I'd wager that the way we communicate with someone on-line is far different than how we might communicate with them face-to-face. Alot of our humanity is unrepresented by our on-line persona.
Wow, I am pretty deep. Now, maybe sleep? Doubt it, but it's worth a shot.