Shall we hide behind the mask?

 With Tumblr, being a social networking site, and an open one of that, you have access to see the lives ( or whatever they decide to blog about), with a click of the button. With social networking, and Tumblr specifically you are able to create your own identity, by choosing what you let define or title your blog. "In a virtual narrative you are not the only person constructing your identity."(Van Luyn,A. 2015)  Others, will always have an opinion of you and your actions,  whether in virtual, or not. They will construct your "identity" by how they perceive things you do.

http://weiksner.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/dog.png

Internet gives the user the ability to create an identity they feel most fit with, or an identity to toy with others. You never really know who someone is on the internet. People can make up a name for themselves,  use a celebrity, or models face and pictures that aren't well known, claiming that is "them". This happens a lot with internet predators, faking their identities to get close to girls and boys, before committing the crimes after finally meeting them in person. Though this also helps with people getting out of their shell of shyness. Allowing the user to be able to portray their favourite actor, cartoon character or celebrity, this is evident on the writing community of tumblr, or roleplaying side. Users/writers portray an person and communicate and write with other writers, all for recreational fun making friends and writing stories along the way. 

McNeill says that “Facebook builds on both human and posthuman concepts of the human subject in compelling, and arguably posthuman, life narratives, as its users produce and are produced by accounts of digital life” (McNeill, 2012). This can relate to Tumblr as well, since both are popular social networking sites, though personally, I do not believe in this as one can never really have full control over something, only small amounts of control in different areas.

reference list; 

Van Luyn,A. (2015) Our space: Network, narratives, and the making of place, lecture 5: Intertextuality [powerpoint slide 7] Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

McNeill, L. (2012). There Is No "I" in Network. Retrieved from Social Networking Sites and Posthuman Auto/Biography: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/Conc-camcontent-bb_bb60/items/getitem.jsp?as_course_code=13-BA1002-TSV-INT-SP2&content_id=_1242562_1&course_id=_42849_1&doc_id=42357

http://www.familysafecomputers.org/predators.htm