ass 2

In defining who I am through an cartoon representation of myself posted on this blog I must Cite Bells use of  Cheung where he argues that “personal websites offer their creators the chance to ‘reveal’ previously-hidden aspects of their identities; in this way, homepage authors suggest that it is
the ‘real me’ that it is presented on a site (even though many admit to self censoring,
and to ‘tailoring’ the presented self).”  And to this I must disagree with Cheung because I have no desire to change who I am where I am from or what I look like.  My avatar is as close of a representation of my self as I can make with limited computer skills and limited knowledge of technology.  As far as the presented self I must say that I presented myself in a way that depicts who I am through a picture, an avatar,  I'm a white man with a beard who wares black shirts and blue jeans and is a city kid.  These are all represented in my avatar.  I can see where others can only show the “real” version of them selves when they are online, but I'm a person who does not give two flying fucks what people think of me in real life or online.  If I'm in a classroom and someone pisses me off I will tell them “ Ill kick your ass” and if I'm in a chat room for some god unknown reason and someone pisses me off I will once again say “come meet me so I can kick your ass”  That's the real me a city kid who wont take any bull from anyone.  I also believe I proved just from the last few sentences that I wont censor myself online to create a different more clean image of myself.  All and all what you see is what you get in person or online. 
    I must also go to where Bell states the use of the LambdaMOO website where people can choose many different genders for themselves as something totally ridiculous.  Your a guy, a girl, or transgender.  You can not be anything other than one of those three things.  Yet why would someone want to deceive people?  I don't quite understand this my self as I am very forward in who and what I am.  But, I could see someone doing this if they are testing out something they want to become, perhaps a guy wanting a sex change operation or something.  I don't know the answer to all the reasons for not stating who you are, but these people need to be honest with others and them selves.  Just as Bell stated that people were angry when a Psychologist played a trick by saying they were something different than they were, I would be just as mad and so would you.  Honesty and telling the truth is half of that philosophers consider the basics of what makes a society and allows it to function.  If we are lying online how long until it spills over into real life, or as the internet is becoming more and more part of every day life it may be well on its way to affecting our society.
    I looked at Sydlexia.com and his blog about himself because it is a site I always go to about popular culture that was around when I was growing up.  He describes himself as a college grad in philosophy attempting to obtain a masters degree and writing a web page on the side.  He makes jokes that are crude and would offend some, but to me they are funny and sometimes self deprecating which I really enjoy.  The man says what he thinks and gives the finger to you if you have an issue with it.  His opinion seems to be “Hey this is my opinion and my thoughts and my site, if you don't like it leave”  I can identify with this so much I consider myself the same type of person and find it refreshing to see there are others who speak their mind with out being so self absorbed with a holier than thou attitude.  He is Direct contrast to what Bell said many people do online, the whole changing themselves, censoring themselves, and playing a role that is not them.  A person could tell just from what he writes about him self, what he writes on 80's and 90's culture, and what he writes about life as a whole that these three things match in style and tone.  If that sounds weird I will explain.  His writings are all the same because he never tries to be anyone but himself and that shows through online when you are reading different things from the same person. Also his avatar changes every so often, but it always a video game image from the 80's or 90's with long hair doing something funny.   This tells a lot about him, a guy writing about that subject of games and such, long hair, and has a site that if you get the humor is great for a good laugh.