Is the Internet Colorblind?
By: Courtney D. Marshall PH.D
This was a great article, I was extremely interested in just the first paragraph. This article raised many questions in regards to race, gender, and cultural differences in our societies ‘cyberspace’. Author and professor Courtney Marshall writes, “Having a space where you can represent yourself as not dark, female, or Catholic does not make these categories less real. In fact, having the desire to leave these behind shows the power that they have in our culture,” (21). I believe what she is saying is completely true in how people try and shape their own culture over the web, even though you can’t ‘see it’. I don’t believe the internet is colorblind. Even though you can’t see or hear the other person, you can learn about someone through their writing. The article also talks about how one’s culture is brought into cyberspace even if people don’t necessarily try too. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. “Watkins theorizes that the students associate MySpace with uneducated and unemployed people who have the luxury of continually tweaking their profiles while Facebook’s uniformity connotes upward mobility and professionalism,” Marshall writes. S. Craig Watkins a media professor, found that teens and young adults do create their own ‘cultures’ via the internet. People are associating different social networks with different cultures and different stereotypes. By doing this, people are truly bringing realities to life online. Ultimately, this article opened my eyes to the fact that the world wide web is a cultural place, you just have to look a little deeper. Technology has such a large influence on society in today’s world. I would think it’s nearly impossible not to bring one’s beliefs and heritage through the internet. Technology is also constantly changing, so i’m not sure what the internet will bring in the future, but I do know that regardless of one’s culture, we are and will continue to be interconnected with one another.
I agree! The abstract was the best part for me.
ReplyDeleteErin, I love your statement on the article. I wrote about this article as well and mentioned the same things as you did. technology is changing our enviroment, culture and individual's personalities. I think you did a great job writing about this article so that people who didnt read it understand what it's about.
ReplyDeleteI also read this article and grappled with the ideas of a "colorblind" Internet. I believe our technologies have become an extension of our sensory perception. We 'live' in a cyberspace environment and connect with people on a degree of levels creating ongoing relationships. The Internet provides a forum for people to express themselves and discuss issues such as problematic stereotypes in our societies with people who we might never encounter in a physical realm.
ReplyDeleteI read this article too. The Internet may not be colorblind, but it has brought forth a whole new meaning to the term "identity". It's weird to think about the Internet in this way. But everything you mentioned, Erin, I agree with. The thing that amazes me is that the Internet is not that old. It's fairly new in fact, and it makes me wonder where it can go in terms of identity in our culture.
ReplyDeleteOne section of your blog post that stood out to me was the part about how people interpret various social media sites: "Myspace belongs to THIS group of people and Twitter belongs to THIS group of people," etc. Sites like these can create their own cultures.
ReplyDeleteThe part about MySpace versus Facebook interested me as well. I'm not a MySpace hatter, but my perception of people who use MySpace versus people who use Facebook is definitely very different, which I previously never thought about. I agree it will be interesting to see how the internet alters and creates our culture in the future.
ReplyDeleteI also found the research regarding MySpace and Facebook interesting. I try to convince myself all the time that I stay clear of stereotypes. However, at one point in my life, I would have said the same thing in comparing the two social networks. MySpace is “ghetto” and Facebook is more “classy”. In reality they are the same thing, and I am realizing now how easy it is to unintentionally form stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteI thought this article had an interesting concept about the internet being "colorblind." So much of social networking involves images that it's hard to not base your impressions based on the images that are provided. Of course they don't always have to be accurate, but we're all making judgements whether we try to or not - and not just about race - social class, peers, culture - we judge each other on so many levels with the amount of information we provide online.
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