Effects of Online Personas

Experiences being alotted by the internet affect how modern people deal with issues in reality and how they reflect on them as well.  In Sherry Turkle’s article “Who Am We?” she talks mostly about the use of MUD’s and how people use these kinds of programs to play out some kind of inner desire, alternate persona, or perhaps to even unleash their true personality in a way they find difficult in their everyday life.  The Internet, with its seriously interactive capabilities, forces upon the user a new outlook, another resource that will eventually begin to influence the way in which people think, feel and ultimately respond to a situation.  Someone with low self esteem could use a program like an MUD to forge relationships and build up confidence in sharing who they are with more people under the veil of anonymity afforded by the Internet.  However, a role-playing game, while important in the evolution of how we perceive and how we are perceived, may not have the desired result for someone who is looking to be freed from their shyness or insecurities.  Playing as a character could simply have the effect of allowing a normally timid person to become more comfortable within their virtual reality – instead of using those skills or lessons they have manifested in their online conquests and redirecting them to undergo a similar success with their real life problems.  Of course, online anonymity does not strictly serve the purposes of the fearful and introverted.  These types of roles that can be adopted also help to serve in allowing people to understand behavior and logic in alternate settings which form a kind of awareness they may not have previously been confronted with.  Just like small children who use their imagination to engage in moments of pretend, whether they insist on taking roles as parents, firemen or airplanes, virtual reality is also a way for internet uses to have fun in a manner that can induce revelation and understanding for a variety of subjects.