Erasing Race

In “Erasing Race” by Beth Kolko the article talks about technology drawing people to the internet where virtual worlds define what race is. People then create identities that determine who people say they are even if it is not a person’s true identity. The author tries to explain how race tends to be missing from the cyber world and how it affects the communication process within our social networks.
These cyber worlds, also known as MUDs, can be broken down into different categories such as text-based descendants of the old Adventure game, three dimensional graphic worlds, and business environments, just to name a few. The one main element about these worlds is establishing an identity within a network. The author states, “[you] must assemble a virtual self. While the elements of identity that are offered to users vary from world to world, the general act of creating a persona within the world does not change.” Language is another key factor when it comes to cyber networks. The language you use also describes who you are because if you talk a certain way people may have an idea of your background. I like the quote where the author states, “The lack of an @race property means that the MUD is an environment where racial identity is presumed to be either irrelevant or homogeneous.” What she means is that most people are going to be assumed to be white unless some factor suggest otherwise. The networks out today and the rapid growth of personal computers makes it easier for people to create a person online that may seem to be more appealing because of the different networks and the requirement of an identity.
A quote in the reading that stated, “ Too frequently people must adapt to technology rather than adapting it to their needs.” Why do people care so much about technology. People can just as easily go out and meet people in person, but the cyberspace just made peoples’ search ten times bigger. It seems like people are losing touch with reality and meeting people on the internet is tricky. People give false identities and make them seem a lot more attractive or more outgoing when in reality you may not even know the race of a person because of these fake identities.
I thought the reading was different and it seems to be true how cyberspace is taking over and making people different.

Facebook Analysis

The Facebook page I chose to analyze was a girl named Whitney DeGendt. Whitney’s profile states that she is in an “open relationship” with another girl. A lot of people tend to do this because they think its fun or the person is their best friend. But most people do not take thing like that seriously because someone’s profile, who is a female, may be married or in an open relation ship with another female yet they list that they are interested in men. A picture I found on her page came from a spring break 2007 album. The picture show Whitney at some kind of restaurant and she is holding a cup of beer and a cigarette to her mouth. The caption under the picture says “I have problems.” But Whitney’s facial expression shows that she is laughing and just joking around. Whitney is a white heterosexual female college student. Although Whitney may or may not drink or smoke she is portraying the image of a “typical” college student who drinks a large amount of alcohol and smokes and like to party on spring break. Not to mention she is wearing four leaf clover head piece that lights up.