Just keep swimming...

Poised on the couch with laptop at the ready, a double shot latte and books, papers and magazines galore, you could be mistaken for thinking that this student is about to undertake some serious study. You could not be more wrong. This is me, and this is my afternoon. I am about to write a scene in my Facebook reality. Depending on how my day was, you could be about to consume a romantic comedy, drama or quite possibly a violent horror (depending on how many wedding vendors I've dealt with on that particular day!)

With Deuze (2011) explaining that the media is like an ocean that surrounds us, it could be said that we are no longer sight seeing in our boats, rather, we have jumped ship and dived into the ocean head first. Some might argue that we were pushed, but I think the notion presented by Deuze, that we live inside the media, is more appealing than most people would care to admit.

When else could we write a virtual diary for the world to see, display your entire family life for all to critique and publicly rant and rave about our daily happenings or lack thereof? Not only is our media identity alive and well, it's virtually a social norm to present this 'other' persona for the world to see. This is the media reality, and we are living it.

I like to think of the media as the life jacket we need in this ocean that surrounds us. A life jacket that allows us to blur the lines between real and fake, then and now. A life jacket that will sustain us if we just keep swimming...

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References

Deuze, M. (2011). Media Life. In Media, Culture & Society, Volume 33 (1) pp. 137-148. Accessed April 4, 2011 from http://mcs.sagepub.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/content/33/1/137.full.pdf

A Blurred Image in the Mirror

The topic for week two, Performing Me: Maintaining Visibility on the Social Stage, explores the construction of self and personal identity through the use of New Media. Enabling a creative and often edited version of ourselves, the content we display and share are conversations of ourselves (Leong, 2011). 

Pearson (2009) refers to the online sphere as a stage, a place where we act out our lives. On this stage we are whoever we want to be, ourselves, a portion of ourselves or somebody different entirely. Pearson also explains the role of the audience, both the seeing and the unseeing, those who are participating in our play as silent viewers and those who are providing active commentary. Donath and Boyd (2004) explain that the images we share provide a carefully selected snapshot of our lives, images of things which we believe people would aspire to have. We choose images which allude to the perfect life, perfect partner, perfect holiday and so on.

Sometimes our online persona is living the dream; pictures of the overseas holiday many hope for, updates on the festival others wish they were at and education information that some would be jealous of.  Perhaps then, our online persona is not entirely fake, simply the more flattering and appealing aspects that we deem share worthy. An image of ourselves, albeit a little blurred.

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References

Leong, Susan. “KCB206 New Media: Internet, Self & Beyond: Week 2 lecture notes.”

            Accessed March 13, 2011. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au

Donath, J. and Boyd, D. 2004. Public Displays of Connection. BT Technology

            Journal 22 (4): 71-82.

Pearson, E. 2009.  All the World Wide Web's a stage: the Performance of Identity in

            Online Social Networks . First Monday 14 (3).