Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id EAA27802 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 18 Jul 2001 04:46:13 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745FA2@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@MMU.AC.UK'" <memetics@MMU.AC.UK> Subject: RE: Faking It: The Internet Revolution Has Nothing to Do With the Nasdaq Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 15:29:43 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain X-Filter-Info: UoS MailScan 0.1 [D 1] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>> I don't really agree with the view that people create new
identities on the
>> internet because they found their old ones inadequate. As a
teenage player
>> of role playing games (still demonised in parts of the Bible
Belt?), I think
>> the same principle applies to the internet as in those games- in
other words
>> it's a game, it's fun.
<I think most psychologists would question that dichotomy.>
OK, but I think I was responding more to the implication of the way
the comment was worded in the article, that the extent of role playing on
the net indicates widespread dissatisfaction with identity, which in turn is
a produc of escalating social pressure. This may be correct, but it's a
long chain of relationships that need evidence, and I think the tone of this
piece was a little too broad brush for me.
<Obviously, we have different degrees and kinds of emotional
investment in the
> things we do, but we often invest quite heavily in what's called "fun",
> and very lightly in what's supposedly "serious".>
>
Can that not simply be because fun things are fun and serious
things, are well serious? Of course, I suppose what one finds 'fun' and
'serious' depends on all sorts of things, including socialisation.
In the same kind of spirit that Wade presents, I'm one of these
people who gets annoyed at social pressures to be happy at events like
Christmas or New Year (much to the general annoyance of my family who have
to put up with my overt cynicism and misery).
I don't think there's any underlying problem explaining internet
role-playing, or any necessary detrimental consequences (internet abductions
excluded- you can't help feeling that parents need to learn a new form of
surveillance of their kids, but those adjustments will come in the way
parents routinely tell kids to be careful crossing the road). Such views
are all part of the post-modern mythology that plenty of people are still
trying to peddle, IMHO.
Vincent (yes, that's my real name :-)).
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