Real or Roleplay

When we were asked to read a couple chapters from Sherry Turkle's Alone Together, I was surprised to find that A. The text wasn't boring, and B. I could relate to some of her frustrations.  I say some because although I agree that as a whole, people are afraid of the telephone, resorting to calls as a last resort, when Turkle points out that we create virtual identities to substitute our own lives, I just can't stand with her.  Sure, there are people out there who live vicariously through their online 'avatars', but Turkle explodes this idea into massive proportions.

The example in particular that Turkle uses is that of a girl named Audrey, in chapter 10, 'No Need to Call'.  This teenager is used as a representative example to show that a majority of not just youth, but beings in general develop and cultivate an alternate world for themselves, as a stand-in of sorts when their real life day to day isn't great.  In the real world, Audrey is 'one of Elaine's shy friends who prefers texting to talking'.  Turkle goes on, describing Audrey's strained family relationship, and how Facebook and Myspace help her to be a happy, flirty teen and not the struggling 'woe is me' high school girl.  The problem is, she is one of a small minority who behave this way.

Take a step back and look at your own tendencies on social networking sites.  In my own immediate circle of friends, I notice that none of them show a side that I haven't seen in person.  They use Facebook as a way to stay connected, not develop a fantasy realm.  I also use it as a supplement, not a substitute, to the rigors of day to day life.  While the anonymity of the internet does let us be bolder, (I have ranted to it more than I would dare to in real life), the fact is, most people don't suffer from a Jekyll/Hyde complex.

Another case that I can speak with experience are the worlds of roleplay and MMO's (Massively Multiplayer Online [games]).  Having frequented both, I can understand Turkle's fear of losing yourself in a fantasy environment.  As I said earlier, there are people who do 'become their character', speaking with a certain dialect or having it transfer to their real life personalities.  But overall, people understand that what they're doing is fake.  Pretending you're slaying dragons or are a samurai in modern Japan is just that: pretend.

In all, I'm not complaining about Turkle's incentives for writing Alone Together.  Her arguments of the disconnectedness of humans today is spot on, and surely will get worse before it gets better.  But she's fooling herself and others when she claims that we lose ourselves in an online realm.  She doesn't factor in that although we prefer to live inside our minds, and think that it's the real deal, we know that it's fake.  The real world will be here after our imaginary worlds end, and that's where we love to live.