My Runescape boyfriend is a cat

Think about that one online fling you had years ago (everyone’s got at least one). For all you know, your Prince Charming was actually Mr. Whiskers, the intelligent cat. Anything is possible in the world of CMC!

Gatson (2011) explores identity on the internet, and emphasises the fact that you really can’t trust other people if there is no way to prove their identity or what they are saying (which is essentially every type of CMC) One criticism of CMC though is that it muddles up everything else in sociology. For instance, it is hard to tell whether the communication is frontstage or backstage, and the presentation of the self could be a complete deception.

As reluctant as I am to admit, I did go through a phase in year 7 where I was obsessed with an online game known as Runescape. This is a social RPG where players are encouraged to interact with each other to complete missions. An interested trend I found in the game was that it became a ‘thing’ to have relationships with other players, to the point of crafting rings for each other and divvying up resources. However, you had no idea what other players looked or sounded like. You just had to trust the word of the other player. The website even automatically starred any mention of a hotmail or MSN address (this was before the days of Facebook) as well, so it was hard to communicate in a way external to the game.

This demonstrates the dangers of anonymity online, and shows how easy it is to be untruthful. Because there is no way actions can be traced back to the person, players can act without suffering the consequences. Here’s a video to help reinforce the effect anonymity has on interactions online:

Gatson, S. (2011). Self-naming practices on the internet: Identity, authenticity, and communication. Sage Publications, 11(3), 224-235.