Yes, I have made fun of the "emo" kids on Myspace, who love taking closeups of themselves with their hair covering their faces and piercings galore. I have also laughed at the "losers" wasting their entire lives playing MMORPGs, obsessed with their alternate personae. And I scoff my acquaintances , consumed by an odd mixture of Death Metal and anime, as they are "performing themselves as Asian through on-line textual interaction" (Nakamura.)
But these are all stereotypes, or extremes, that we choose to pick out to criticize. We assume that these archetypes must not have lives or that they do not know who they truly are. I think that each and every human being who interpersonally communicates, online or in "RL", is a social actor. We act in different situations in our everyday lives--at school, work, and with our friends, so why not online as well? I for one, have posted blogs and pictures online that are ambiguous, and not connected to what most people would consider my true personality. I use anonymous online outlets to explore my curiosities. I have posted as a African American male in an online "free-style" rap battle forum. I have also made graphic art exclaming "I'm so goth, I shit bats" and posted them randomly on my friend's sites. These things are all apart of me, somewhere deep inside.
Like Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov, I believe that no medium can truly capture "reality."
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