The On-line virtual World

Today’s, the computer plays an important role in everyday life. The amount of people who find a voice within these chats rooms is becoming larger and larger. With the advance of electronic communication technologies, and especially with the invention of the internet, the border between machine and human is greatly reduced. The internet is considered by most as a new public sphere where a diverse group of people gathers to discuss issues of social concern. Of course, not everyone has access to this new medium of communication, because it belongs to those who do belong to a high-level, educated class. We associate the term “motion” with any object moving from one place to another. We are accustomed to seeing human motion only within the physical dimension. But, this vision has collapsed with the invention of the internet. On the internet, we move in a way that differs from the real world. Maybe in real life, we are still sitting in front of our computer; but we are definitely going elsewhere while connecting to cyberspace. The computer and especially the internet are shaping our ways of thinking and feeling. The cyberspace environment engages our bodies and minds; it taps into both our emotional and mental capacities. Through this technology, we can experiment with different existences and visit two different worlds: the real and the virtual.

Fake Identities on-line

Recently, I read a information written by Anick Jesdanun. Think twice before you sign up for an online service using a fake name or e-mail address. You could be committing a federal crime. Federal prosecutors turned to a novel interpretation of computer hacking law to indict a Missouri mother on charges connected to the suicide of a 13-year-old MySpace user. Prosecutors alleged that by helping create a MySpace account in the name of someone who didn’t exist, Lori Drew, 49, violated the News Corp.-owned site’s terms of service and thus illegally accessed protected computers. Legal experts warned Friday that such an interpretation could criminalize routine behavior on the Internet. After all, people regularly create accounts or post information under aliases for many legitimate reasons, including parody, spam avoidance and a desire to maintain their anonymity or privacy online or that of a child. This new interpretation also gives a business contract the force of a law: Violations of a Web site’s user agreement could now lead to criminal sanction, not just civil lawsuits or ejection from a site. “I think the danger of applying a statute in this way is that it could have unintended consequences,” said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor who leads a MySpace-convened task force on Internet safety. “An application of a general statute like this might result in chilling a great deal of online speech and other freedom.”Drew, of O’Fallon, Mo., was indicted Thursday on charges of perpetrating a hoax on the popular online hangout MySpace. Prosecutors say Drew helped create a fake MySpace account to convince Megan Meier she was chatting with a nonexistent 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006, allegedly after receiving a dozen or more cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.Drew, who has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl. Prosecutors argue that to access MySpace’s servers, Drew first had to sign up for the service, which meant providing her name and date of birth and agreeing to abide by the site’s terms of service. Those terms bar false registration information, solicitation of personal information from anyone under 18 and use of any information gathered from the Web site to “harass, abuse, or harm another person.” By using a fictitious name, among other things, Drew violated MySpace’s terms and thus had no authority to access the MySpace service, prosecutors charged. “Clearly the facts surrounding this matter are awful and very upsetting, and I certainly understand the instinct of wanting justice to be served,” Palfrey said. “On the other hand, this complaint is certainly unusual.” Drew’s lawyer, Dean Steward, said Thursday a legal challenge to the charges is planned. Missouri authorities said they investigated Megan’s death, but filed no charges because no state laws appeared to apply to the case. Andrew DeVore, a former federal prosecutor who co-founded a regional computer crime unit in New York, said Friday the interpretation raises constitutional issues related to speech and due process — in the latter case, because it doesn’t allow for adequate notice of when using an alias online is criminal. Because corporations would end up setting criminal standards, a completely legal act at one site could be illegal at another, said DeVore, who has no direct involvement in the case. “What clearly is going on is they couldn’t find a way to charge it under traditional criminal law statutes,” DeVore said. “The conduct that she engaged in they correctly concluded wouldn’t satisfy the statute. Clearly they were looking for some other way to bring a charge.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24670474/)

 

On-line Identity

In the real world, we act who we are. It’s hard for one to hidden his/her identity because one shows his/her identity based on physical activity in social context. But in the imagined world, how we behave, or interact with others is quite from that in the actual situation.

Today, the internet has become a common tool for communication，which replaces the traditional socialization. Thanks to the on-line communication. One’s identity can be reconstructed by how one chooses to communicate; as a result, the internet provides its users the potential to explore identity more easily and more anonymously.

One of the most commonly discussed topics regarding on-line identity is the exploration of gender and sexual identities Despite the increasing of sexual equity, there is still a degree of sexual discrimination, so the internet offers users with a chance to chose their sexuality prefer, they would like to embody.

 

IDENTITY

What is identity? For me, this word is used to present who I am. The definition of identity varies based on different peoples’ understandings. According to Dorothy Holland et al., (1998) they define it as “if they are alive, if they are being lived-are unfinished are in process. Past experience moves into contemporary life. It happens in social practice.” In 2008, in Identity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Wardekker W. define “identity”—it is not something acquired once for all times; rather, it is in constant development as long as person is learning. And as identity is a culturally developed and still developing tool, the quality of that individual development will be related both to the exigencies of the cultural situation a person finds himself or herself in, and the affordance a specific culture offers at a specific time.

Nowadays, how the youth define their identities?

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