Homework Task:

Personal Homepages and construction of identity on the web summary.

Media theorists like John Meyrowitz (1983) suggest how new media like the internet and world wide web interrupt the general boundaries between public and private. The internet gives an insight of peoples inside lives with the high level of explotation web users feel comfortable to portray. The web opens opportunities for information to be ''automatically'' published on global scale, and is a source of information for many other web users reading up on specific people. A home page reflects relationships between the public and private issues, as many that are private are publicly displayed to viewers. Thomas Erickson notes that home pages are not being specifically used to publish information, but is a form of constructing personal identities through a virtual environment. The web in comparison to real life forms, and real literal identities are presented through the web by profile layouts and patterns, text, and language used rather than the physical appearances like clothes and style of hair. It offers mass communication between people in other sides of the world which is generally seen as a positive impact of the World Wide Web. The method of media is open to ''mass producers as well as mass consumers'' meaning both producers and consumers gain maximum satisfaction from the internet. A Negative is often seen when users of the internet on personal homepages do not have the ability for people to meet the real person and make a judegment, and merely base their opinion on what they are presented. This has become labelled as the notion of having ''virtual selves'' through the technology of the internet, and people not being able to see the real person and their personal body language, posture and gestures therefore differing to reality of personal self.
Claude Levi-Strauss' refers to the term Bricolage as a way of defining affects of media on a person involving the materials one needs to be able to present ones self through the web. Personal homepages need bricolage from the user, to make the web page individual and unique to them as a person. It is involved with the construction of ones identity through the elements that come into play when producing a web page.
The internet has enabled people to find out more about the presentation of their own identities portraying it to much larger audiences with this type of media. Rather than staying in their own circle of friends, people are able to explore other friendships with people they would never have met without the discovery of the internet.
Users of the internet as a form of media, are more able to create a sense of identity and a sense of self through the way they choose to express themselves on their personal websites and chat forums. The internet has a mass audience which inturn makes the information written on personal profiles and homepages very public. This can be a negative when some people often manipulate their public identities on the web. Some theorists argue that the internet causes less and less face to face interaction although the development in the internet and web pages allow people to express themselves in a way which has never been possible before. This has had a big impact on the people of todays society, and will continue to allow people to present a view of themselves through the internet and many forums.