Birth of a Deviant

This month I joined a new virtual community on the internet. I joined deviantart.com. This community was chosen because it provides great entertainment as well as support for some areas of my life. Deviantart is a place where creative people share their art with admirers and other artists and receive feedback about their work. They can also sell it. I am not a professional artist by any means but I do like to dabble in the creation of art every once in awhile, whether it be in drawing, paintings, poetry, crafts, music, or photography. I have always known about Deviantart and every once in awhile it is one of the places I visit to kill time and look at a lot of great art. Deviantart reminds me of some of the great things having the internet has brought to the world. I can look at art from all over the globe and see art I would not have seen if I wanted around for an exhibit that has been approved by some rich person or some art expert. I can be my own judge and be exposed to all kinds of art and meet the artist and learn a bit about them. I believe that no matter what they say about the internet disrupting our reality and stopping certain communication it definitely increase our communication internationally.

This month I finally became a member and shared some of my favorite photos I have taken as well as some paintings and sketches. Getting compliments on my pictures made me feel great and it was good to know someone else out there thought it was a special photo as well. I assimilated into the group by adding my art into the site and choosing favorites of other people’s work, I also needed to upload an avatar and share some personal information about myself (favorite movie, artist, music, etc…). One of the biggest things about being part of the group is having an avatar. I noticed I got much more replies when I had uploaded my avatar. I think it was a way for someone to give me an identity and know I was serious about becoming a member. I got into a slight disagreement with a man the other day (6 days ago). He took a picture of an Aries tattoo and called it a Taurus tattoo and I corrected him on it. It made me kind of nervous because I was wondering if he was going to be a crazy person and would try and insult my pictures or something to get back at me, but he didn’t and just replied “yes…I think you are right…about that…J” I don’t know exactly how to interpret the “…” in between each of his words, but the smiley let me know he was ok with me correcting him. So I wanted him to know I meant no harm by the comment and replied with a” :-P “ It seems that emoticons are a big deal within the Deviantart community and they are commonly used to display how someone feels about the artists work or the discussion they are having. It was great for me to be able to just “ :-P” him because I had really nothing to say but I just wanted him to know I was “ok” with him and without being able to physically let him know through tone or facial expression I could with an emoticon.

This whole situation reminded me of netiquette, which Wood and Smith discuss in chapter 6. One of the main punishments someone gets online if they do not have proper netiquette is to be ignored! Or their comments may be deleted from the user. This is usually a last resort. The person has to be very bad to receive such a punishment from an individual. This is how rejection can truly translate over into a virtual community. Yes people may feel more risky and capable of being someone else online because they do not see others online but they can always be ignored or blocked from user’s which is a way to reject someone. I remember when I used to play online poker and we had a chat room for all the players and if someone got blocked by everyone they would feel completely rejected and usually burst out with hurtful over the top language and then leave the game even if thy were winning! So, with my own experience this kind of rejection can still be tough on someone.

ALL PHOTOS are from Deviantart.com and are linked to the artist.

What's in My space?

What is the first thing you do when you sit down to use the internet? I know that the first thing I do almost every time is check face book and MySpace to see if I have received any message. Even if I have an assignment or some other important agenda I will stop to check these sites. WHY! Well that is easy I want to see if someone has contacted me…someone I enjoy….a friend…I want to experience something fun before I get down to the nitty gritty. With the popularity of MySpace and face book, many people today have a profile in at least one of these networking sites. Is the information they are choosing to share a real representation of themselves?

I am currently reading a book called Linking Technology, Identity, and Culture by Andrew F. Wood and Matthew J. Smith. In chapter 3 and 4 online communication is brought up and they speak of how people represent themselves online. One subject they bring up is the idea that the internet “allows us to determine how much of an identity we wish to front in online presentations”(pg. 66). I believe there are many ways we can choose to leave out information or share information in these sites, but there are others instances where we do not have control. I just got done reading about how with the creation of technology we gain something and take something away. In many cases it ends up being privacy.

One problem I have with these sites is that anyone may put a picture of you online for display. Anyone can go online and find photos of me that are out of my control! I have been mad about quite a few photos that my friends have chosen t put online and I now constantly have to think about whether or not I am willing to possibly have a picture put in public display before I go take a picture with my friends at parties or other social events. I do not like that AT ALL. Many people (especially women) have decided to make MySpace (and other sites) a main place to put photos of everything they (and their friends) do online. Employers, family and other people I do not know can judge me by these photos and my profile.

I definitely make sure that I am representing myself in a good light online unless there is a level of anonymity. If I’m blogging or in a discussion forum and my real name is not being exposed I feel more open to share other strange or strong opinions, but I feel that face book and MySpace is too public. I have made these pages of mine private to public viewers and I can only hope the images my friends decide to post do not represent me negatively.

AN example of where this had a great impact was when a friend of mine almost got fired from her RA position at Oregon State because there was a picture of her online at a party with a girl that was under 21 that lived in her dormitory. I remember her avoiding cameras all night because of face book and she would announce it to each of her friends when they were trying to take pictures, but she got put on face book anyways!