Colin’s class is talking about ANONYMITY, PERSONAE, PSEUDOYNMS. This is an old topic that academics have been writing about for years, and I even have a few posts about it up. I would encourage people to check out my entry, Pseudonymity and Anonymity online that I wrote last year. In it, I talk a little bit about pseudonyms that Charles Dodgson, Samuel Clemens, and W. Mark Felt used, long before people used pseudonyms on MOOs.

I talked a little bit about Gursting. Check out SocioAnthro SIG Transcript for the Online Reading Group. As another random resource, I would encourage people to check out Impression Formation in Cyberspace: Online Expectations and Offline Experiences in Text-based Virtual Communities. While it was written about MOOs, it applies pretty well to blogs as well.

Brenda asks, “So what happens when the face-to-face disappoints? I imagine it’s quite a letdown.”. When I’ve met people whom I’ve known and become good friends with online face to face for the first time, I’ve often been surprised, but never disappointed. They don’t look at all the way I imagined them. I think it ties nicely into Dr. Jacobson’s paper. Even when they are gender-benders presenting in a gender different from their ‘real’ gender, or when I’ve found them particularly physically unattractive, I’ve not been disappointed. Instead, I’ve come to appreciate them for the quality of their thoughts as they present them online.

You know, thinking about it, we might be better off if we met and developed friendships with people via text before we ever meet them face to face. It might go along way to breaking down prejudices and generally making our world a better place.