On the internet, no one knows you’re a Kiwi

Well, technically I am not a Kiwi (nor a dog), but I do know how comforting it can be to have a virtual persona that doesn’t share all of my embodied traits.  I started reflecting about this dichotomy of identities again a few weeks ago when a developer I met mentioned that his clients didn’t know he was located in New Zealand.  They communicate via online media (email, chat, blogs, etc), so geographic locales do not necessarily influence their interactions.

What I find particularly interesting, though, is when you go from a virtual to a FTF encounter.  I am getting ready to meet and interview (and be interviewed) by people who I have only known online or have mostly interacted with in virtual environments.  They don’t know what I look like (except for the odd photo) or what I sound like or anything about my in-person demeanour.  In fact, I have actually thought about my appearance (brushed hair, wearing clean clothes) in order to be more presentable than I normally am when sitting about my laptop chatting/blogging.  It is a bit like a blind date, but I already know them, so how do you act?  I must say that even though I am nervous, I am excited as well.  I like my life online, but I am really looking forward to experiencing real life (RL) encounters too.

Do you have a funny RL/virtual friend experience to share?  I’d love to hear about it.

See mii, feel mii, touch mii

Closely tied to blog community is a member’s sense of identity.  What makes someone identify with a blogging community assuming we understand what a blogging community looks like (see http://famartinniemi.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/word-of-the-day-community/)?  It must be related to personal identity.

A few weeks ago we got a Wii.  I have never been very interested in console or computer games (except Civilisation – which I have wasted many late nights playing).  The Wii seemed a little different, you create an avatar “mii” which plays against other miis and in the case of Wii Fit, adjusts according to your actual size.  So I made a mii which was very cute and reflected how I felt about myself – freckles, dark hair, tan skin, etc, but the Wii Fit module has done something quite unexpected.  When it calculated my weight and BMI it made my mii chubby!  Now I know that I am overweight, but I don’t think of that in my external personification of myself.  So it is quite alarming to see fat-mii each time I play the game.

So for blogging, I think identity or characteristics that make one identify with a blogging community can vary depending on which ones are chosen for that particular venue.  For example, I identify with the depth and topic in research related blogs.  I look for wit and cleverness in others.  For friends’ blogs I judge my level of identification with the blogging group on how well I know (in RL) the other members.  And my depth of participation is directly related to how well I feel my identity for that group matches the community’s identity.

It is fair to say that if Wii Fit had a blog which saw me as fat-mii, I wouldn’t want to be a member.

It’s not you, it’s me

An old friend and former boss used to tell this joke when we would go for coffee and a chat.  After talking for a while and catching me up on what was going on with him he would say, “well enough about me, what do you think of me?”  And even though he was joking, there was a little truth to it.  We all love to talk about and hear about our favourite topic, ourselves.  I am no different.

So it naturally follows that I would be interested in blogging, as the newest manifestation of “me”.  I can write about me.  I can read comments about what my readers think about me.  I can google me.  Look at stats about me.  But wait, there is more….

I no longer have to settle for a single avatar about me, but I can have a separate blavatar as well.  Ah the multifaceted “me-ness” is wonderful.  So I wonder, if all of this reflection (and reflexivity as a researcher) helps communicate anything to others or is my tendency towards navel gazing a hindrance to interaction and community forming (the underlying reason I became interested in blogging)?

Well enough about me, what do you think of….?