Identify Yourself

Identify Yourself, by Krystal South discusses how greatly the internet impacts our everyday lives and even our identity. This web page was organized in a very confusing way. I found myself reading one section and then having to jump to another section because the columns moved in opposite directions. What I took away from this reading is that the internet is permanently intertwined in our lives and it makes us act differently than we would "in real life." Krystal talks about how the internet causes us to reveal information about ourselves to people we've never met, yet we wouldn't reveal that information to someone we actually do know. Also, she discusses how the internet allows us to alter our identities and become things that we are not. Overall, I do agree with this article, however I don't think people need to worry about it as much as this article suggests because there is really nothing we can do about the internet being a part of our lives.

I decided to analyze the section "To Chat." This section focused on how talking to people on the internet is quite different than talking to people face-to-face. First, on the internet, you cannot tell the exact tone of the conversation you are having with the other person because you can't see facial expressions. Also, conversations that happen over the internet can go on for weeks about the same subject with the same person. Face-to-face, conversations are usually over with in one sitting. I think that having a conversation over the internet (or text messaging) is very different than having one face-to-face because it allows you to pause, for a good while, in order for you to think about what to say next. Face-to-face, you may say things that don't come out right, or you may say things to quickly. Talking to people over the internet allows you to take much more control over the conversation.

Overall, I feel as if this article just pointed out things about technology that we don't really think about in everyday life. It is very interesting to read something like this article because you become aware of just how important the internet, or any form of technology is in your everyday life. While I was reading this article, I thought of how different classes would be without technology. How would we communicate with teachers outside of classes? How would we write our blog posts for homework? How would we even have a digital media art class? Technology obviously plays a very important role in everyone's lives.