One of the most surprising aspects of the first half of this semester was how much I actually enjoyed the nonfiction book I chose to read. I expected Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commandments for a Digital Age, by Douglas Rushkoff, to be a somewhat stiff book about how to program software. Instead, it is more of a psychological look into how we are using digital media and how we should be using digital media. One thing that I really liked about Rushkoff's writing is that he pointed out both the good and the bad components of digital media. For example, in the chapter titled "Identity: Be Yourself," Rushkoff discusses the problem of anonymity vs owning your identity on the internet. In this chapter, he discusses how there is a time and place for everything, including both anonymity and taking ownership over your own identity on the internet.
This example of identity vs anonymity turned out to be a crucial point to think about as I was reading Going Postal byTerry Pratchett, and also as I began working with Project CCC on our collaborative novel. In both Going Postal and the collaborative novel, the main character struggles to find a since of identity. Both of the character must be able to remain anonymous in order to perform their respective jobs, but they are soon forced to show their "true" identities. Moist von Lipwig (the main character of Going Postal) even admits that he feels naked without his various personalities. Throughout the story, Moist finds that he can be so much more productive when he doesn't have to constantly worry about whether or not he's used that particular guise before. I've become more interested in this anonymity vs identity as the semester has gone by, and I've started to notice that other people have discussed this. For example, on October 8 Casey Deans posted a thought about whether or not people put their best selves forward on Facebook. That led me to this CNN.com article. I think it is an important issue that is only getting bigger as social media becomes more important in our lives.
It's been an interesting semester so far, and I'm excited to see where it goes, especially as we get rolling with Project CCC and the collaborative novel.
This example of identity vs anonymity turned out to be a crucial point to think about as I was reading Going Postal byTerry Pratchett, and also as I began working with Project CCC on our collaborative novel. In both Going Postal and the collaborative novel, the main character struggles to find a since of identity. Both of the character must be able to remain anonymous in order to perform their respective jobs, but they are soon forced to show their "true" identities. Moist von Lipwig (the main character of Going Postal) even admits that he feels naked without his various personalities. Throughout the story, Moist finds that he can be so much more productive when he doesn't have to constantly worry about whether or not he's used that particular guise before. I've become more interested in this anonymity vs identity as the semester has gone by, and I've started to notice that other people have discussed this. For example, on October 8 Casey Deans posted a thought about whether or not people put their best selves forward on Facebook. That led me to this CNN.com article. I think it is an important issue that is only getting bigger as social media becomes more important in our lives.
It's been an interesting semester so far, and I'm excited to see where it goes, especially as we get rolling with Project CCC and the collaborative novel.
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