Dollhouse

I think that people's relationship to technology is getting very close to making mankind dependent on the stimulous of the artificial situations that people enjoy. The online identity, the digital imediate get everything you want additude and even as the dollhouse so elequently puts it, takes peoples identities fully away from themselves and can make them into other people. In the season of the Dollhouse, the woman signed away five years of her life to have her mind wiped and portay different people. I think that you don't even need your mind wiped for this process to occur. Take a person with no life and stick him in front of a computer for five years without getting to go anywhere. I bet you he will have it least 20 to 30 SNS that he or she recreates themselves on and communicates with. Sexuality online is far too motivated by instant gratification and the ability to get laid within a night. I think that the poetry of intimacy of a normal situation is taken for granted when people think everything is easily found digitally.

Mars Vs. Venus Online

I think men and women don't act any different online. I think it has way more to do with personality of the person and how they were brought into technology that helps their online identity. Online identities are very selfish and people can find themselves expressing everything they feel nessesary and not realize they are exposing themeselves. Women tend to take very racey photos of themselves for the attention of men and men take racey photos of themselves for the attention of women. People who really like different hobbies will post things about those hobbies as well as be as open as they want about their private life. Its not as much gender as it is, how brave a person is to annouce public information about themselves online. Girls may be a little more into a romanticized version of online vs men who believe online is a way to "get to things" as a more practical application.

This is the Word.

Rasism Online

People are people, online or off. If they are a racist in person, odds are they would be interested in, or create themselves, a website or blog that leans towards their ideals and belief system of racism. Checks and balances occur online if a racist website is the cause of becoming a SNS that is dangerous or destructive towards the real community its based in, however it least in America, freedom of speech allows for racist websites to exist as is. In other countries where the government isn't a democracy, racist websites are allowed to exist at the whim of government officials. If a specific race is targeted that the government official doesn't deem worth protecting, the possible danger to that race could rise with the flourishing of anti-race propaganda and websites that gather people together to inflame the situation. The idea that people can say anything online is really a matter between us and our government, freedom of speech is circumstantial at times due to the nature of online and offline threats to different races in America.

This is the Word.

5 Possible Mediums/Discourse Community Topics for Analysis

Mediums
1) http://www.neopets.com

Discourse Communities: Children and Adults who can't have their own pets, Children and Adults who want digital pets, Web Gamers, Graphic Artists

2) http://starwars.com

Discourse Communities: Starwars Fans, Filmmakers, Animators, Screenwriters

3) http://www.reenactmenthq.com/

Discourse Communities: Historians, American History Buffs, Civil Rights Activists, Government Officials (Lobbyists, Mayors, etc.), Horse Trainers, Civil War Weapon's Experts, Civil War Costume Experts, Antique Collectors/Dealers.

4) http://www.comic-con.org/

Discourse Communities:  Readers of Comic Books, Comic Book Writers, Comic Book Companies, Script Writers, Artists, Graphic Novel Illustrators, Graphic Novel Costume Makers, G4 Television Station, Filmmakers, Animators, Video Game Developers, Video Gamers

5) http://www.peta.org

Discourse Communities: Pet Lovers, Government Officials, Website Developers, Activists, Celebrities

I am pretty sure this was the homework assignment....

Since it is Valentine's Day, I used to follow a medium online for dating purposes, a SNS, called www.okcupid.com because I'm an out of state college student. (Just being honest) I found out after a few uses of the site, to meet people, that it was a place for desperate nerdy men trying to hook up with girls instead of finding and having healthy relationships.... so I stopped using it.  I think that the free online dating websites probably follow the discourse communities of desperate/asshole men looking for an easy score with women and the dating websites that require you to pay for things are probably a magnet for discourse communities of honest men looking to find love. I personally have reduced my faith in this type of relationship making process.... but I know it might work for some people. I don't completely dismiss the process, I just find that the whole idea gets muddled because online communication can be misleading and I have definitely had experiences where it proven itself to be such.

This is the Word.