Assignment #1: Introducting Myself and Interests

1) Yo.

My name, as you may or may not but probably should be able to figure out, is Jason. I'm a junior English major here at Cornell University, and predictable though it may sound, I love writing. I actually have a blog already, through which I periodically regale the masses with tales of my awesome doings, but my real goal is to become a screenwriter, because movies are sweet, and writing them is easy, and "easy" and "fun" are synonymous to me.

I use the Internet extensively, and there's no doubt in my mind that without it, my life would be significantly less interesting. The Internet allows me to keep in touch with people I would almost certainly just write off otherwise, such as parents, grandparents, and friends I don't like much. Additionally, through the magic of e-mail, I even managed to come into contact with John Heffernan, the writer of Snakes on a Plane, who graciously read and critiqued a screenplay of mine (a pretty awesome occurrence, given that people who’ve made it big in the film industry generally aren't...nice).

2) The Internet phenomenon that most interests me is instant messaging, and more specifically, how easy it is to be a different person while using it. I don't mean that in the sexual predator sense, but rather in the sense that I view people - even those I know in real life very well - differently online from how I view them in person. There are some people that I actually prefer talking to online, just because their Internet personas appeal to me more than their real ones. Conversely, there are people that are great to hang out with in the real world that I can’t stand talking to online, whether because they’re rude or just plain boring.

Example: A friend of mine that I've only met a couple of times but whom I talked to frequently through instant messaging once said to me, on one of our rare, real encounters, "I'm having trouble reconciling this you with the online you. I keep trying to put everything you say into slanty, red-on-black text." I think there's a lot of meaning in that quote, and I'd like to know what it...means.

3) I guess my interest falls under the synchronous chat space, what with all the synchronous chatting involved. Wallace didn't mention instant messaging specifically in her discussion of online spaces, but she did mention one-on-one "whispering" in chat rooms, which is more or less the same thing. Awesome.