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The experience of traveling around the Internet is quite an interesting venture. You never know what you will encounter.
I think you can find the weirdest people on the Internet. Of course, that is relative to my definition of weird. I think
that everyone of us is weird in some way, but I suppose my point is that the Internet contains the weirdest of the weird.
In all actuality, it may be that the Internet sucks out the weird from a person, and that manifests itself through people
fascinations and obsessions. I find it humorous that I could type in a random subject, such as Tony Danza, and find hundreds
(possibly thousands) of sites dedicated solely to him. I think he is properly a cool guy, but I only put him on my page to
get a laugh and represent the random part of my personality. There are people that actually love and practically worship
this guy. If you are one of them, I am sorry. But the weirdness is not Tony Danza, it the fact that as a person puts themselves
on the Internet, they all of a sudden start dabbling in the world of weird. Like I said before, we all are weird in our own
way and fashion. There are some that stay on the Internet for excessive amounts of time being people that they arent, or
they bring out a part of themselves that they wouldnt in a normal face-to-face situation. I have never been a huge Internet
person. I check email, and I from time to time us the Internet for shopping or paying bills. I dont particularly like to
do the chat, and I dont understand MUDS, MUCKS, or whatever. But these are where people lose themselves or maybe they find
themselves. They go into these rooms and worlds and make these websites that reflect either what they wish they were or what
they are glad they are not.
"Some critics have expressed an anxiety that Web pages may lead people to manipulate their public identities more than
has been possible with traditional media. Howard Rheingold has argued that the authenticity of relationships [and identities]is
always in question in cyberspace, because of the masking and distancing of the medium, in a way that it is not in question
in real life (Rheingold nd). Hugh Miller notes that in personal home pages' information about the self is explicitly stated
and can be managed by the person making the communication (Miller 1995). This is, of course, not so easy in the direct face-to-face
interaction."
-Quote from "Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web" by Daniel
Chandler.
Link to that article...
I ask myself, in the few times I have gone into some sort of chat room, if I act the way I would in a normal situation. My
answer is no. And my answer is no not because I am dishonest in any way, rather the fact the I havent any non-verbals to
worry about or interact with. So, as I went and searched around I found that people had no problem in divulging information
that I had no interest in knowing. Im sure that they felt it necessary to express their inner feelings or their extensive
Barbie collection. I am not trying to devalue what these people hold dear, but in light of my own personal values and beliefs,
I just come to the conclusion that the Internet just brings out the weird and brings out the personal. In the journals I
read, I came upon some things that just a little too personal coming from someone I do not know.
Last month Alexis Massie presented readers of her online journal with another honest and affecting piece of autobiographical
prose.
"Sometimes I wish this had all never happened," she wrote. "I only know how to take what's
in my heart and shove it onto a screen, both good and bad, secure in the knowledge that the people to whom it is relevant
will read it. And there's nothing wrong with doing that. But it holds little appeal for me and I don't think I want to do
it anymore."
-Quote from Baring Your Soul to the Web by Simon Firth
Link to that article...
But I guess that is the beauty of the Net. Nobody really knows who you are. As for my website, it is rather vague and is
leaning more toward making fun of myself instead of bearing my soul.
JournaL TwO
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