I am going to talk about gender
swapping as discussed in the book. Gender
swapping is a common phenomenon on Internet in today’s world. People have all the concealment and inconspicuousness
to pose as a different person on the Internet because conversation can be
established without being face to face.
Without anybody’s knowledge, the users can experiment with their identities
and genders. Mostly males swap to female
gender in order to enjoy the privileges of being a woman. Whereas, females try to experiment to be
males for getting their aggression out. Past
research has estimated that as many as 40% to 60% of Internet users gender swap
in their computer mediated communication by portraying themselves as a person
of the opposite sex in their electronic conversations in chat rooms, instant
messages, and e-mail. 28% admitting to
having pretended to be a person of the opposite sex online, and 45% of the
total 823 respondents said that they had suspected and questioned the sex of
another online participant.
This is a fun topic in chapter 15. I think the most experience in gender swapping that I have had is not knowing the sex of an online group member. I have often thought a certain gender was on the other end and been wrong. I think it is less shocking than when we are making these mistakes in other modes on communication. In CMC I find myself thinking that I should have known or that I did not read messages closely enough. In other means I am far more shocked. When I am expecting a phone call to have a crtain gender on the other line and I am wrong, it is a big shock. I think this may have something to do with the fact that I expect to know less and predict less about people online.
ReplyDeleteHello! Great post! What a great topic to discuss! I found this very interesting myself. Like Blanch commented, I've never really experienced anything like this except for being on the other end of the spectrum perhaps. I didn't even know this really existed to be honest. I was a bit surprised. But it makes sense in the way that people like to experiment with their identity and what not. I do question however how and why people would do it in small group settings. The statistics you spoke about are interesting as well. People actually participate in this kind of activity, wow. Great job on your discussion.
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