Question #1

After reading the article, "A Virtual Death", I thought the concept of self disclosure online was very interesting.  Ultimately it is this concept that lead me to choose online dating for my paper.  The truth is, you never really know who you are talking to online.  In this article, the woman blogged about being a woman named Kaycee and describing to her blog readers, her battle with Leukemia.  People completely believed her and never questioned for a second that this could be a made up person.  Other than the situation being totally unethical, no one was injured.  But the lack of self disclosure online can have dangerous consequences.  Parents often have security concerns when it comes to their children talking to strangers online.  They may portray themselves to be a thirteen year old when really they are a 50 year old man.  Ive learned from the Kaycee story and the concept of self disclosure is that you need to be on guard.  You should be careful about the information you are disclosing, since you have no idea that the other person is disclosing accurate information to you.  This article was so sad, but as sad as it was, it is a huge lesson learned!

Question #3, Favorite Reading, :)

We have read so many interesting articles this semester! I think one of the more interesting readings was "Just like me, only better".  Up until I had read that article, I was not very familiar with the avatar world, but i can understand why someone would be interested in creating one.  With avatars you have the opportunity to design yourself to be someone totally different; its like creating the life you wish you could have.  I rememeber reading this article and finding it surprising how so many people who are of other ethnicities than white, decided to create avatars that had blond hair and light skin, calling it "white beauty".  I think this fact is kind of sad; that people would prefer it if they looked like a different ethnicity and that they think that people will feel that they will be more "popular" or "desirable" by creating a fake version of themselves. I have never made an avatar so I am not really familiar with the process.  I do think that this sort of program can be benneficial to those who have low selfestiem but I think at the end of the day, people need to be able to face reality and learn how to deal and not live in a fake universe.