Friday 30 August 2013

YOU GET THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!


One of the greatest aspects of the Internet is being able to create a new identity. Yes, I may be 18, white, female, who resides in Australia; but I can also be a sassy, 21 year old, Spaniard living in the States. From this weeks lecture recap, it was stated that power is relational (Van Luyn, 2013). I am connecting to my other identity, channeling my inner Hannah Montana if you will. I can establish my new identity in my chosen viral network by creating a place that can allow my new thoughts and interests to be heard or seen. 

Tuan described that a sense of place is created through humans perceiving and constructing that location (Tuan, 1991, pp. 689). Sadly, I have indeed found a strong sense of place to my virtual network, Tumblr. When I began Tumblr, I started a personal blog, my name and detailed were published in an “about me” page for the world to see. From a few months in, I gained 120 followers. But the more I published personal thoughts, opinions, and even photos, I did in fact loose about half of those followers. Yay!
So, instead of just moving on from the site, I decided to just recreate my blog and not publish anything personal about myself, not even my real name. I still use that blog today and I have over the span of two and half years just gained over 2,000 followers. Despite the fact that I didn’t reveal my person details on this blog, I still felt that I was myself. I felt it through what I posted, the photos, videos, text posts, and even audio. However, I do feel as if I am more like myself online than I am in real life. I can express myself more clearly and I don’t feel as much judgment. Sometimes, yes, I do like to think of myself as Hannah Montana, just minus the international pop star bit.     

Reference list 

Tuan, Y. (1991). Language and the making of place: a narrative-descriptive approach. Annals of the association of American geographers, 81(4), 684-696. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au 

 Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our space: network, narrative and the making of place, week 5 notes. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au
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1 comment:

  1. Unknown1 September 2013 at 12:39

    I love the fact that you've linked this to Hannah Montana. It is exactly what it's like. I also agree on the fact that you can be more yourself online than in real life, I feel the same. I feel as though narrative also has a big part of this, as "narratives are stories fundamental to the construction of self" (Van Luyn, 2013), which is a big part of Tumblr.

    Reference:

    Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our space: network, narrative and the making of place. (PowerPoint slides). Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au

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