Website Analysis - Identity and Message Boards (Part 3)

As previously discussed within past blogs there are message boards after every entertainment story. These message boards allow the audience to get involved and it opens up discussions about particular articles. Although the discussions are meant to be about the particular articles in question, many discussions open up into full debates and arguments. Technological determinism is said to be “autonomous and the force which changes society” (http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/trinity/determin.htm) and has helped websites such as heatworld evolve and allow more interaction from the user. For example, the website has become much more like general social networking sites as people post back after each comment in relation to each other, not necessarily talking about the particular article in question but conducting a general conversation. This way of communicating also throws up this question of identity (a term coined by Professor Sherry Turkle)as no one can see each other and therefore you can be whoever you want to be. For example, if you’re very political minded and all your friends believe that it is stupid to believe and read in such celebrity news, then you can experiment with a new persona which other people on the forum/message boards will relate to. They can forget about everything their friends or current social network would think as no one else needs to know about it. They can be part of a virtual world that doesn’t have anything to do with the real world they live in.