Sandie Ramirez-Mayorga Summary/Response #5

Sandie Ramirez-Mayorga Summary/Response to:

Zhao, Shanyang. "The Digital Self: Through the Looking Glass of Telecopresent Others." Symbolic Interaction, vol.28, no.3,2005, pp. 387-405. JSTOR, JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/si.2005.28.3.387

Summary

In the article The Digital Self: Through the Looking Glass of Telecopresent Others, Shanyang Zhao has a few agendas. One of the most important things he targets is the difference between what is perceived by a person in the online world, as well as what the same person sees themselves through communication in the online world. Zhao starts by analyzing a widely statement, "...proliferation of self in cyberspace has been explained largely in terms of the detachment of the self from the body in telecopresent interaction:  as others cannot see who we really are, we are free to claim to be whoever we want to be." (388) In the article he quickly dismisses this statement by arguing that telecopresence is much more than simply communicating with another person through the internet. He describes telecopresence as "... a situation in which individuals are electronically linked together while physically separate in different locations." (390) Although it is harder to make up a general assumption about who is on the other side of the screen, Zhao believes it is important to note that telecopresent interaction is definitely a way to understand others even if the communication is through anonymous means. He goes on to reveal that in order to look at who a person truly is, there has to be an understanding of how we present ourselves; after all, Zhao believes that,"People we interact with influence the way we thing of ourselves." (387) Zhao's belief through this statement is thereby strengthen by his whole article in which he explores reasons why teens may or may not go anonymous online and what occurs to a users image in terms of how they communicate with others.

Zhao also points out that there are three reasons in which teens go online with a preconceived notion of getting to know complete strangers. The first reason for this is that they somehow go into an identity crisis and want to figure out how to truly define themselves. The second reason is that they are too shy to open up to people face to face and since going online gives a person the chance to become anonymous, it is easier to speak to someone they don't know rather than to have to explain a million and one things to a person they can speak to face-to-face. The third and final reason for teens talking to strangers in the online world is simply because they believe it's truly anonymous and they're looking for someone with the same opinions and outlooks on life. Through understanding these three reasons of going online Zhao continues to explain that there are also four reasons in which talking to someone through telecopresence. The first way he explains is that. "The digital self is oriented inward toward the world of thoughts and feelings because other cannot see our overt attributes."(400) Because teens go online to pour their hearts out and try to find understanding through some one else, it is important that they don't give off too much to make it known to the other person who the teen truly is. Another way in which self perception is make clear through online is that, "narrative in nature because others come to know us primarily on the basis of what we tell them...". This in turn allows the person on the other side of the screen to make a mental picture of who is writing to them and sharing all the thoughts and opinions based on exactly what a person says. He goes on to mention another way in which teens gain a sense of who they are by online communication by sharing that "[online identities] ... is retractable because others are unable to link our online self-claims to our offline identities...". Although Zhao claims that this is a teen's easy way out of associating oneself to certain voiced opinions, he highlights that most teens will not do this because to retract themselves from online communication is to loose all online relationships. Finally he adds that being identity online "... is multiplied because others interact with us in different domains of the online world." This being said, it is easier online for teens to experiment with who they truly are and what types of comments or posts other people agree with more. Because they are going through an identity crisis it is easier for teens to shape their thoughts and perspectives in the online world through simply exploring online.

Response

I thought this article was one of the most interesting articles that I found although there weren't a lot. This article focused on teens but I generally think that his claims could easily be in reference to adults too. With so many individuals, adults and teenagers alike, suffering from identity crisis, I thought his research was very intuitive. Zhao is definitely spot on when he talks about the different reasons teens go online and like I mentioned above, it's easy to see why adults sometimes do the same thing. I can honestly tell you that I shut out people who don't have similar view points or beliefs as I do because it's easier to communicate with them. I don't know if I completely agree with his claim about being anonymous online even if you don't share personal identifiers such as names, age, etc. I feel like even though we don't share such intimate details, others still gain a sense of who is venting out frustrations. Although I do agree with his claim about being able to communicate with others online without feeling repercussions about what is shared. I find myself censoring my opinions sometimes because a lot of people are just too emotional and sometimes don't truly understand the complexity of what you are trying to convey.

Quotations

"Undoubtedly, not all others we interact with expert the same influence on us. We are less affected by the people we do not know very much about, and more influenced by the people we are acquainted with whom we respect and whose opinions we value."(388)

"... how we present ourselves to others is influenced by whether we believe others can directly see us or not, how we percieve ourselves is influenced by the extent to which we are able to directly see other and how they respond to us."(389)

"Regardless of how much we have known them online, their offline identity largely remains unrevealed or unverified."(392)

"Through online communication we have come to know a lot about them, including the personal secrets they reveal to us' we may feel intimately acquainted with them"(392)

"The digital self is therefore more oriented toward one's inner world, focusing on thoughts, feelings, and personalities, than one' outer world, focusing on height, weight, and looks."(396)

"... it has been found that wen interacting with other in telecopresence, people always conjure an image of what others look like based on the bits and pieces of information gleaned from the disembodied text messages."(396)

"Telling telecopresent others who we are therefore requires a level of introspection and reflectivity that is to normally exercised in the real of face-to-face interaction. It is a process in which we take a careful look at ourselves and seek articulation. It is a process in which we take a careful look at ourselves and seek to articulate solely in words what we see about ourselves that we would like others to know."(397)