We have entered the information age, which means that information can be received whenever, wherever, and however we want. Whether we’re looking surfing the internet on our tablets, or downloading a “thousand cool facts” app on our Android, we have access to literally any article on any subject we could want. There is nothing hidden anymore, and we have information tossed at us from every source imaginable. This passing on of information is a two way street, however, so we have the ability to put whatever we want on the world wide web with ease. This can be a double-edged blade, because for every informational news clip on YouTube, there are 10 videos of someone picking their nose and laughing about it. My point is, there’s a lot of stupid things on the internet. Certain authors like Keen have written about how this unfortunate fact is leading to a “corroding effect on the truth, accuracy, and reliability of the information age.” (Keen) This is a very negative view of this ease with which information is passed around. There are other authors who would argue that this can lead to a “collective intelligence”, where together an online community can build upon each others ideas to make a complete database on a specific subject. Sites like Wikipedia are where the information age thrives, since the site allows anybody to add to articles on many different subjects. This is dangerous since people can fool around and produce false information on an article, but luckily Wikipedia has a way of dealing with this that I will discuss later. Supporters of this new evolution of the information age like Clay Shirky stand behind the “Noble Amateur”, saying things like “a Wikipedia article is a process, not a product, and it is never finished” (Shirky).           

A personal example of how this freedom to edit any page can be dangerous comes from a friend of mine, who had an unfortunate occurrence happen to another kid at his school relating to Wikipedia. Basically, there was a “nerd” who was disliked by many at the school simply because he really liked a character from a video game and was not very social since he spent so much time playing games. Another person from this kids school decided one day to change the entire Wikipedia page on that character to a repeated phrase insulting the nerdier kid. The kid was extremely upset and was made fun of all the more from other kids at school. This type of bullying is known as “cyber bullying” and is an unfortunate and sometimes tragic side effect to the ease with which information is edited on Wikipedia. While the character page was quickly removed for “renovations” and replaced with the original article once more, this caused a great deal of stress and sadness for the kid who was a victim. This is how this particular site’s policy can be a bad thing, but due to the administrator’s role on Wikipedia these mishaps are quickly dealt with. Another Administrators are like the “protectors” of Wikipedia, because they check every article that is updated for validity, and in this way keep the site an informational source rather than just an internet forum (where anything goes as far as validity and user content.) They will remove a page and renovate it to make sure it provides valid information, as they did in the case I talked about earlier. Also, certain pages about gravely important events and people are locked by Wikipedia officials, so that no one can spread misinformation on these pages.

Another example of how media and the ease with which people can express their ideas and thoughts on the internet comes from YouTube. There are many examples of people having embarrassing moments put on this site when they are recorded on video by their friends. One such example is a girl on YouTube who sings covers of songs, and due to her appearance and level of skill with vocals, she is ridiculed on the comments brutally and harshly. This is an example of cyber bullying, and can lead to many psychological problems in an individual. It is more harmful than real physical bullying in some cases because it can be on a much larger scale. In this case, the girl will have hundreds of comments saying how awful her voice is and even go as far as to say she should kill herself. The anonymity factor that sites like YouTube and Wikipedia provide allows people to say whatever they want with no fear of anyone knowing their true identity, and their reputation suffering because of it. This is the main cause of cyber bullying, and is why YouTube is dangerous. The lack of any real regulations is the reason for YouTube's main issues with cyber bullying, but Wikipedia avoids this issue.

Wikipedia is not a place where our culture is being degraded or lost, because there are policies in place to prevent that sort of thing to happen. Our culture thrives on the collective intelligence that this sort of site provides, and the many different viewpoints and bits of knowledge that people from different places and backgrounds can provide. A person can write an article trying to explain everything about a subject, but the truth is that person just does not know everything there is to know about it. However, another Wikipedia user can check out that page, realize that the person is missing an important facet to a complete description of the subject, and add in what they know. This process has an evolutionary effect on the page, rather than a degrading effect. The information age’s malleability is also very beneficial and productive because the truth is always changing in the real world, and finally there is a widely used source that evolves with it. A textbook can tell you the truth as it was known when the book was written, but if a fact is disproved or an entirely new asset to a subject is discovered, the textbook cannot get that information to its readers. Whereas Wikipedia is always changing and evolving based on the information that its users know. If a music artist dies, anything previously written about that person is ignorant to that important piece of information, whereas the moment any word spreads about the death, a user will go on the site and make sure that person’s article is updated.

Identity blog

            In the Turkle reading she speaks about Identity and how it can easily become blurred on the internet. She speaks about the different places (such as MUDs) where identity is so easily changed and manipulated that it is impossible to know who someone really is. The internet provides a place where people can recreate themselves. The socially lost and forgotten can become popular in their own online community, and physical appearance has absolutely no effect on a persons appearance on the screen. This blurring and shaping of identity can be a very good thing for people such as the boy who was able to start expressing his true self online and work on bringing out different parts of himself through his online avatar. He said that he was able to work on certain withdrawn characteristics of himself on the internet, then apply what he learned in the real world. In this way he was able to shape who he really was in the anonymous world of an online community. This is one way that internet forums and MUDs can be useful, but there are other more sinister ways the internet can effect people as well. For better or for worse, one guy was able to get out all of his anger and frustrations he accumulated in the real world by harassing and even cyber raping people on the internet. Due to the anonymity of chat rooms and MUDs, he could relieve his anger by taking it out on people he didnt know on the internet. He thinks it is beneficial because it does not actually hurt anyone physically, but this is uncertain. For someone who invests much of their time in their online avatar, to the point where the line between their online selves and real selves becomes hard to define, having their internet personae raped could be incredibly harmful psychologically. Turkle touches on this subject, but also moves on to other topics such as internet relationships. One man began talking with a person on the internet in a MUD and eventually they grew so attached that they decided to get married in the MUD. This not only effected the online world, but real people also "living" in the MUD got together at the server computer's location and physically celebrated. This is an odd concept, because while someone could be honestly portraying themselves in their online avatar, they could just as easily be a very motivated actor and be someone completely different. Without physically meeting someone it is nearly impossible to gain a complete and full understanding of them. And even meeting someone in real life doesnt allow you to know exactly who they are at first, if ever. Identity is a very strange thing when looked at through the lens of a researcher on the internet. Turkle talks about how someone can spend so many hours on an internet MUD that it can take over their real life, becoming more important to the person than the real world thats happening around them. As computers developed and advanced, people became able to leave their MUD online while they were at work and even sleeping, in this way people would never leave their online world, and their online character would practically take over their real life. While identity changing and being able to recreate one's self can prove beneficial in forging online relationships, it can be used in different ways as well.

          One example that comes to mind when I think of identity and the molding and shaping of it is Neil Patrick Harris' character on "How I Met your Mother". This is a great show and the character, "Barney", is hilarious. The reason I think of this show and Barney in particular is that Barney's main goal in life is to sleep with women, and he goes about this by creating insane stories about himself and essentially new "characters" whenever he is at a bar trying to meet a girl. He is all about sleeping with women and never speaking to them again, and he does this by rarely revealing his true identity. In one episode he pretends to be an astronaut going to space the next day, which makes a girl want to go home with him, since being an astronaut is pretty impressive I suppose. The point is, he recreates his identity each time as a way of staying anonymous in the real world, so that he does not gain too much of a reputation for his shenanigans.
Here's a clip showing his tricks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV-NhfgoA7A
This relates directly to what Turkle talks about because essentially Barney does what people on these internet chat rooms and MUDs do all the time, make someone up, and become them to satisfy some sort of personal gain or desire. This last assignment we did on AIM was also an eye opener and brought up some new questions of identity. I was speaking with two people and I had no idea if who I was talking to was portraying their true selves or they were just putting on an act. It really made me question the honesty of the person I was speaking with, because while they were very cordial and nice on the chat, they could have been messing with me. My experience with this project was fairly low-key because I only chatted with my people a totally of about 5 times, but it was not too crazy of an experience.

          The main thing I realized through studying Turkle's readings and experiencing anonymous chat myself is that trust is the main thing that is distorted when dealing with virtual identities. It is impossible to trust somebody who you cannot see because reading someone's body language and hearing their tone is very important to forging a relationship. You can much better judge someone's validity when you are with them than when the only connection you have is text on a screen. It allows people to recreate themselves to be whomever they want. This can allow unsavory characters to trick unsuspecting MUD users or just chat room users into thinking they're someone nice when really they're devious and misleading. In this way, I believe MUDs can be either a good thing or a bad thing. They can either allow people to express their true selves without the binds of physical appearance or social reputation, or they can allow people to gain the trust of other internet users and then betray that trust in terrible ways like cyber rape or bullying.  But the internet still continues to grow, and though the days of MUDs are over, the future of the internet is social networking, so new dangers caused by identity uncertainty will just continue.

       But those are just my thoughts, and I'm just a guy.