This is wear I’ll get myself in more of a tangle!

A vehicle is a construct yeah but not in the same way. I think a vehicle implies a one way street, it takes you from A>B, with restrictions of course. These are incredibly complex now and offer the user to construct themselves in loadsa different ways, you’ll need a persona/avatar but the difference between real-life and digital will be massive. People will build their avatars for wholly different reasons so it becomes a bit of an acting/self-fulfilling prophecy-type situation.

It’s not really about names/faces, it’s what the person says and how they are judged by others and so judge themselves and alter what they say = who they are in the digital world. I think your point here on authenticity is key, you assume when you join a community people are there for similar reasons. But how can you ever know? Or with a research head, ever gain insights from profiles which may not even represent an actual person?

Rant over. Sorry if this confuses more. I’m gonna do some more reading and get back to you! I like your blog, you talk about interesting stuff

Ps. See Katie’s points too – http://zebrabites.com/2009/01/29/manufactured-insights-online-communities-part-2/

This is an interesting discussion, loving the dive into abstraction.

I don’t think social media are vehicles however, they’re more like constructs. People rebuild themselves in the digital world and with that they achieve certain aims, unwittingly or not, whether that is a feeling of belonging, or making a connection for work purposes, or learning and increasing knowledge. It’s not like for like, it’s like for want/desire.

So when it comes building a group, you want people to build themselves into the group as well. Anonymity doesn’t really come into it. So anonymity isn’t the antithesis of community at all. In a digital community, a person is represented as what they write/display, what they (re)present as themselves.

Using different platforms people build different selves. Authenticity here then isn’t necessarily being authentic to yourself but the expectations of the group.

And with that, my sojourn down abstraction avenue is over

Ps. I tried to write this better in a post: http://geo-marketing.blogspot.com/2009/02/avatars-our-online-bodies.html

I’m keen to hear more thoughts, ideas, and will keep pondering the beast.

Thank you all for your thoughts.