October 8, 2011

Dare to be confident with yourself

      What actually turns to be fundamental for the virtual world is the celebration of personal identity, which is not only decisive for our own representation -  as actions, objects or structures have a deep impact on everyone’s identity, keeping it in a constant change. Usually, virtual world’s users act differently when they are “ on line “ than in real life. As they have to hold the balance between their different identities, it occurs they gain or loose several attributes. For instance, on line gamers are considered to show deeper contrasts between their virtual and real personality than most of the persons, even if eventually this turns to be a generally shared concept. Reflecting on this distinction, they will end up in making judgements about themselves , resulting either in the complete change of one of the two personalities, or the opposition between them until the conflict is being solved. In a virtual world, on line identity is potentially much more flexible than real identity. It easily allows changes in gender, age, nationality or even material status.
      People who are too shy to get to know other people or be outgoing, can find virtual worlds as social environments where their deficit is not considered to be crucial. They would actually improve their skills through the process of virtual interaction. So,an introvert could absolutely express himself in the online space. What happenes is that as familiarized as you get with the virtual identity, as more self – confidence you gain in reality. From this point of view it may seem ironic, that a 50-year old manager of an international corporation is willing to emerge as a little girl in the virtual space. As you will notice, switching identities is all about maintaining an illusion! During this process, the character of a person is being consolidated.



      Individuals are not perceived to have a unitary personality, simply because they share multiple types of identities. Cyberspace gives people the chance to explore their every single facet. The phenomenon of a splitted “ online self “ appears in numerous computer – based activities. Imagine how you behave in public platforms, compared to instant messengers or private e-mails. What happens is that you can actually develop, express or highlight special character features while concealing your disabilities.
      I would advice though to care of the shared influences that everybody transfers inside this virtual space. Even considering it a free spot in matteres of self expression, the truth is nobody is entirely uncoupled from specific duties. As a result of the blend between fellow users and the social environment, individuals in virtual worlds face several challanges. Put to react to these challenges, they do nothing but to define and develop themselves. In fact,as a reaction to the different situations in cyber space, individuals get an insight of the person they transform into. Of course, we cannot deny the fact that persons are constantly confronted with similar problems in their day- to- day real life, as for instance the way they handle their personal relationships, the way they deal with strangers or the way they turn failure into success. 

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