Virtual life
The blog entry from the class member who attended the Xlan gaming competition and met his on-line associates in the “real world” initially interested me because of the somehow anti-social idea of socialising on-line with people one has never met. Having often felt that I didn’t have enough days in the week to keep up with my friends in the real world, I have been absolutely uninterested in beginning virtual friendships – or so I thought, until further reflection reminded me of several virtual episodes in my past!
As a child I had about ten pen-pals in different countries around the world. They sent me photos of themselves and letters about their lives, and I only ever met one of them once (my Japanese pen-friend came to New Zealand on holiday) – so essentially they were virtual friendships. Having pen-pals was a way of connecting to life beyond the Christchurch suburbs that I was too young to physically escape from. Relating this to the ideas discussed in the lecture about the extent to which on-line communities or social networks take people out of their comfort zones or promote open-mindedness, I remember that having pen-pals could sometimes be challenging. My pen-friend in Alabama stopped writing to me when I criticised Ronald Reagan, after three or four years of exchanging letters about ballet recitals and cheerleading.
For several years in London I subscribed to the Shooting People network. This was a daily email service connecting independent filmmakers all over the UK (it still exists and has greatly expanded its scope – www.shootingpeople.org ). Members could post technical questions, calls for crew or cast for projects, or opinions on the topic of discussion for that week. The daily email consisted of these postings. Shooting People created a virtual community according to the definition of a clearly bounded group – it was only for filmmakers, and postings on any other subject were rejected by the administrators. I met and worked with many people in (real) London through postings on Shooting People. A Copenhagen-based cinematographer even travelled to London to work on one of my projects, after an on-line sharing of scripts, film clips and ideas. On the issue of on-line identity and misrepresentation – at one point there was a question I wanted to post anonymously, so I went to the trouble of creating a hotmail account under a false name in order to do so. A year or so after that Shooting People changed the rules so that only registered email addresses could post.
A couple of years ago all of my friends seemed to be trying internet dating. The concept appeared to be that you could type in the details of your ideal man, hit enter, and there he would be – a far more accurate method than randomly meeting drunk blokes in bars. A Jewish friend was meeting guys through a Jewish dating site, and an Indian friend was searching the world for men who spoke the same south Indian language as her family. I overcame my old-fashioned prejudice against “personal ads” and tried yahoo dating, specifying the London area. I contacted the only man I was interested in, only to find out that he lived in America and had joined the London search because everyone his age in his Southern state was already married. So, coming full circle twenty years later, instead of a date in London I acquired another pen-pal in the Bible Belt.
As a child I had about ten pen-pals in different countries around the world. They sent me photos of themselves and letters about their lives, and I only ever met one of them once (my Japanese pen-friend came to New Zealand on holiday) – so essentially they were virtual friendships. Having pen-pals was a way of connecting to life beyond the Christchurch suburbs that I was too young to physically escape from. Relating this to the ideas discussed in the lecture about the extent to which on-line communities or social networks take people out of their comfort zones or promote open-mindedness, I remember that having pen-pals could sometimes be challenging. My pen-friend in Alabama stopped writing to me when I criticised Ronald Reagan, after three or four years of exchanging letters about ballet recitals and cheerleading.
For several years in London I subscribed to the Shooting People network. This was a daily email service connecting independent filmmakers all over the UK (it still exists and has greatly expanded its scope – www.shootingpeople.org ). Members could post technical questions, calls for crew or cast for projects, or opinions on the topic of discussion for that week. The daily email consisted of these postings. Shooting People created a virtual community according to the definition of a clearly bounded group – it was only for filmmakers, and postings on any other subject were rejected by the administrators. I met and worked with many people in (real) London through postings on Shooting People. A Copenhagen-based cinematographer even travelled to London to work on one of my projects, after an on-line sharing of scripts, film clips and ideas. On the issue of on-line identity and misrepresentation – at one point there was a question I wanted to post anonymously, so I went to the trouble of creating a hotmail account under a false name in order to do so. A year or so after that Shooting People changed the rules so that only registered email addresses could post.
A couple of years ago all of my friends seemed to be trying internet dating. The concept appeared to be that you could type in the details of your ideal man, hit enter, and there he would be – a far more accurate method than randomly meeting drunk blokes in bars. A Jewish friend was meeting guys through a Jewish dating site, and an Indian friend was searching the world for men who spoke the same south Indian language as her family. I overcame my old-fashioned prejudice against “personal ads” and tried yahoo dating, specifying the London area. I contacted the only man I was interested in, only to find out that he lived in America and had joined the London search because everyone his age in his Southern state was already married. So, coming full circle twenty years later, instead of a date in London I acquired another pen-pal in the Bible Belt.
posted by ngaio70 at 7:58 PM
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