Dear Nancy Baym,
Before reading your chapter “New Relationships, New Selves” I definitely had a similar viewpoint to the basis of your writing. In your chapter you talk about how people can form many relationships due to being able to meet others online. Creating an online presentation of one’s self can be beneficial because it puts them an environment that is less stressful to interact in. When searching for a loved one, it is essential to be as truthful as possible and put together a realistic online identity of yourself. However, there is risk involved as well that you state in your chapter. People tend to lie about their online identity because they feel they are better off. For example, some individuals may lie about their age because they do not want to be turned down. This is a negative factor of meeting people online because it is hard to tell what truthful and what is not.
Nicole Ellison’s article “Managing Impressions Online: Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment” definitely shares some similarities and overlapping ideas with yours. She speaks about how people are worried about how they are perceived online and brought up an interesting fact that 86% of online dating users felt their appearance was viewed wrongly. This fact is interesting because in your article you talk about how people sometimes lie about their appearance; such as their age. This relates to Nicole Ellison’s article because it shows how people want to be interpreted in a way that they feel others will be more attracted to, rather than just their true selves. In my opinion, people should be honest about their online identity because they should want to be with a counterpart that likes them for who they are, not for what they want them to be.
Sincerely,
Steve Schreck
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