Erasing @ Race

I didn’t have to read much of this article before I discovered what the most important concept behind the article was. At the end of the first paragraph it says, “Experience is defined by taking action, including deciding explicitly who you are, or who you want to say you are. Consequently, the design of such spaces- the interface that user’s access- has significant power to affect the interaction expressible at such sites”. This quote sets the tone for the rest of the article. It is simply saying that since users use computers and not real human interaction it’s easy to deceive people into thinking that individuals are different than themselves. Having said that gives this interface a lot of power because it gives people the opportunity to hide behind this created reality. The article continues to further discuss race as a part of this virtual identity.
Something that I found interesting early on in the article is Kolko’s discussion about language choices in text- based worlds such as instant messaging. With interpersonal communication facial expressions, hand gestures, tone of voice etc play a very important role in our interpretations of others. In the text based world all of these communication tools are absent; therefore language choice is very important when individuals describe themselves. It plays a crucial role in creating an individuals virtual identity. This is also true of physical appearance. Without being able to see the individual, language choice is the only significant factor that can be used to significantly identify ones virtual identity.
The most interesting argument that I found was Brenda Laurel’s argument about the politics of interface design. She argues that, “constructing a self-replicating and exclusionary category of “ideal” user, one that, in some very particular instances of cyberspace, is a definitively white user”. I know I have gone back to this concept a lot but why do we focus so much on this? Nothing is ever going to change because we over analyze everything so much. This quote says that people make the assumption that users are white until they are given distinct and direct clues to learn that they aren’t. It’s a common fact that people are more comfortable around people that they can relate to. Regardless of skin color that is something that everyone has in common. The world needs to take a step back and embrace our differences and realize that we are never all going to be the same and that there will always be some forms of discrimination but that over analyzing isn’t going to help.