Chameleons and Stigma

[attackfish]

Despite the fact that I’ve been throwing little asides about ivanoma mistaking me for a high school student and thereby emphasizing the fact that I’m not, the most intriguing part about the internet for me is the ability to disguise things about myself obvious in real life such as health, physicality, and ethnicity, but in my case, especially age.   I don’t do this to lie, and I never imply that I’m anything other than what I am.  I simply use this facet of the internet to control the first impressions people form of me.

I’ve always been very involved in the organizations that influence my life, abnormally so.  When I was in high school, I showed up as one of only three students to the PTSA.  PTAs are for elementary and middle schools.  In high schools, students are supposed to have a say too.  However, despite my school system’s lofty ideals about students having some say, none of the adults truly trusted any of us to think at all.  If any of the S’s in PTSA actually show up, or even worse, try to speak, they’re told condescendingly that they’re only allowed to speak on student concerns.  When the chairman of my high school’s PTSA tried to pull that on one of my few compatriots, I raised my hand and asked “Seeing as this is a meeting that deals solely with the educational issues of a high school, aren’t all concerns necessarily student concerns?” (well, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m outspoken) and the adults cooed at me when they told me to sit down and shut up.

The problem was, no matter how thoughtful, articulate, and dedicated I was, my youth was the first and therefore the only thing most adults saw.  When I first created a web profile no one had to know I was fifteen, or that I was oxygen dependant, or short and extremely physically unimposing, or even that I was a girl.  All they had to know was that I was businesslike, intelligent, gracious, and a good jeweler and metal worker.  (if anyone’s interested, I’m on deviantART under the same username).  People treated me like an adult because I presented myself maturely.  No one treated me like an idiot kid.

This anonymity makes the internet a dangerous place, as our teachers and parents were always telling us, but it also makes it freeing.  That freedom is addicting, and is more than any other reason why I keep coming back.

Of course, I ruined all of my artistic credibility by writing Harry Potter fanfic and silly blog posts, but I could always create another profile somewhere under a different name.  You’d never know it was me.

Comments

attacked by fish (haha)

[ivanoma.livejournal.com]

Why would it matter What you are? It does not affct your abilities. I have quite a few prodigies In my family so my viws on the maturity level of any person over 10 was admittededly colored by it. Then... I met my 12 year old nephew by marriage, He was so badly behaved I couldn't help but think there was something wrong with him. I tried not to let it show until he joked (I hope) about putting fire ants on his uncle who is fatally allergic to them and only gave this creepy little laugh when I told him so. However, he is the same age as a step-cousin I met a few months later And while I was surprised by his back talk to his step-mother (who had raised him from a baby and legally adopted him) I couldn't Help but notice that he behaved rather similar to some high school grads I knew. I can only conclude that most people are set in their ways by middle school and if their reading and writing skills aen't developed by then then they never will be. Mine were attained by 5th grade(if anything I've let myself go) Now, If I were to tell someone they write like a six year old....THEN I would expect offense to be taken. I believe in recent years Ive done this once. Here http://www.fanfiction.net/s/540846/1/ I even went as far to allow that perhaps the quality of this work could be do to an incomplete grasp on English....but I doubt it.
I was an avid reader as a young Navy brat. I moved Too ofen to make friends at first and was permanently ingrained with this habit by 10 years old. Cosequently, I developed very good reading skills and a close relationship with my sister who was only13 months younger(excepting the high school years of coarse) I had few friends but I was one of the few who exchanged birthday and holiday cards wth the school librarian.(no joke) I played D&D and AD&D with my father and chess with my baby brother who beat his chess coach and the entire rest of the team byage 14(he surprised us allwhen he was nine by asking for an atlas and a globe for Christmas)
I suppose that my point in saying all this is that there was no insult intended when I suggested you might be in high school. It simply was that I only had evidence from your journal that you had at least got that far. Your talk of classes and exams left me with two possible conclusions. you were in high school or college...I did not wish to ask outright(internet protocal, I could have been a wierdo for all you know) So, I admit, I fished......And was made to know in no uncertain terms that you were in college. When I fish I'm happy to get a carp...YOU let me have the shark.

The Internet allows the body to go on vacation while the mind stays put ...

[(Anonymous)]

I have accepted you just as you are ... my strange little sister! Who needs the Internet to tell me that? Actually, this is very well said. I completely agree with you ... the Internet is a place where we can be ourselves without normal societal constraints.