Botgirl (such an odd name for a parent to give a child) has a great article that I found very thought provoking about how many of us present ourselves online. Well worth a read; especially you shady characters with no faces. 😉 Just kidding, truly. Oh, and sorry +Euro Maestro to pick on you in my subject line.
My comment on Botgirl's original post:
I experienced much of this running a dial-up bulletin board back in the late 80's. My brother +Keith Cramer and I knew a bunch of people just by their "handles" and how they talked in posts; we didn't even have avatars to go on. We started doing HIRL's long before there was a term for it. It was a shock to meet many of the people we interacted with online. Most of the time we found a lot of awkward geeks such as ourselves. We did not meet everyone, but in the end, it was the people that we actually met that became lifelong friends in some cases. It was also the real life interactions that turned into windows of opportunity to meet other people in real life and experience events in real life that we still think about today. There is a comment on the article that you posted about our prejudices when it comes to seeing someone's real self in avatars or posted pictures. I contend we carry a different, but just as powerful, set of prejudices when it comes to people only using an avatar. If not prejudices, then at least a "separation" from them because any of us raised with the 'net know quite well the adage that "on the internet, anyone can be a dog" – or worse.
Please comment back on "her" original post. See what I did there, with the quotes? 😉
Thanks +Botgirl Questi for the post!
Reshared post from +Botgirl Questi
New post: What Happens After Minnie Mouse Pulls Off Her Head
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Botgirl's Identity Circus: Virtual Identity: What Happens After Minnie Mouse Pulls Off Her Head
The difference, and the point of this post, is that meetups of virtual world avatars come freighted with preconceptions — illusions, if you will — regarding appearance, reinforced in most cases by t…
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