Sunday, April 19, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Alexander Pope
Vital spark of heav'nly flame!
Quit, O quit this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying,
O the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.
Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister Spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite?
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
The world recedes; it disappears!
Heav'n opens my eyes! my ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy victory?
O Death! where is thy sting?
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Ye flowers that drop, forsaken by the spring,
Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing,
Ye trees that fade, when Autumn heats remove,
Say, is not absence death to those who love?
Monday, March 16, 2009
Ishte - Eshte - Porsche Museum
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior
Pas kaq kohesh pa u marre me blogun, nuk jam shume i sigurte pse po ve ne blog nje material qe eshte shume larg diskutimeve te perditeshme. Besoj se ka ardhur nga diskutimet te peshku, sepse ne fakt gjithmone mendoj gjera te tipit "dikush qe e therret veten "jepi mbrapsh" normal qe si kondrapedal do sillet", ose mbase sepse une kam pergjithesisht paragjykime te ketij tipi, psh nga dikush me emrin Maqo s'pres ndonje gje te vecante. Mbase dhe jam gabim, ose le te themi qe ka me shume mundesi te jem gabim sesa i sakte per kete rastin e jetes reale, po per ate shembullin virtual, ja qe qelloj te jem pak a shume ne nje mendje me keta tipat e Stanford-it :)
Nick Yee & Jeremy Bailenson
Department of Communication, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
The notion of transforming our appearances permeates our culture. On the one hand, minor alterations such as haircuts, makeup, and dressing up are seen as socially acceptable, if not socially desirable. On the other hand, the ability to truly transform oneself has been regarded in myths and legends as both dangerous and powerful.
Consider, for example, werewolves and vampires fromEurope, the kitsune (foxes that can take on human form) from Japan, the God Loki from Norse mythology, and the God Proteus from Greek mythology. The Greek God Proteus is notable for being the origin of the adjective ‘‘protean’’—the ability to take on many different selfrepresentations. And although extreme self-transformations are expensive (e.g., cosmetic surgery) or difficult to perform (e.g., gender reassignment surgery) on our physical bodies, nowhere is self-representation more flexible and easy to transform than in virtual environments where users can choose or customize their own avatars—digital representations of themselves. For example, the documentation for the online
social world Second Life notes that ‘‘using over 150 unique sliders, they can change everything from their foot size to their eye color to the cut of their shirt’’ (Linden Labs, 2006). In other words, the mutability of our self-representations in online environments is a fundamental aspect of what it means to have a virtual identity (Turkle, 1995).
Even though the plasticity of our self-representations is an important part of our online identities, the quantitative research in computer-mediated communication (CMC) has tended to focus instead on the impact of technical affordances on social interaction in online environments. For example, it has been argued that lack of social presence (Hiltz, Johnson, & Turoff, 1986; Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976) or the lack of social cues (Culnan & Markus, 1987; Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire, 1984) creates an impoverished social environment, whereas others have shown that relationships develop slower in CMC but are not impoverished in the long term (Walther, 1996; Walther, Anderson, & Park, 1994). Other research has looked at how the narrow communication channels in CMC impacts impression formation (Hancock & Dunham, 2001; Jacobson, 1999; Trevino & Webster, 1992; Walther, Slovacek, & Tidwell, 2001). And although there has been research on selfrepresentation in online environments, the focus has been on the impact of anonymity and authenticity (Anonymous, 1998; Flanagin, Tiyaamornwong, O’Connor, & Seibold, 2002; Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1998; Postmes & Spears, 2002)—in other words,
the gap between the real and virtual self and how that difference changes social interactions.
In the current work, we were instead interested in exploring how our avatars change how we behave online. As we change our self-representations, do our selfrepresentations change our behaviors in turn? As we choose or create our avatars online and use them in a social context, how might our new self-representations change how we interact with others? Thus, we were interested in the impact of our actual self-representations on our behaviors in virtual environments rather than the effects of anonymity or authenticity.
......
The set of studies presented in this paper makes clear that our selfrepresentations have a significant and instantaneous impact on our behavior. The appearances of our avatars shape how we interact with others. As we choose our selfrepresentations in virtual environments, our self-representations shape our behaviors in turn. These changes happen not over hours or weeks but within minutes.
Every day, millions of users interact with each other via graphical avatars in real time in online games (Chan & Vorderer, 2006). All of them are using an avatar that differs from their physical appearance. In fact, most of them are using avatars that are attractive, powerful, youthful, and athletic. Although most research in CMC has focused on the technical affordances of the medium (lack of social cues, social presence, anonymity, etc.), we argue that theoretical frameworks of self-representation cannot be ignored because choosing who we are is a fundamental aspect of virtual environments. More importantly, who we choose to be in turn shapes how we behave.
Although avatars are usually construed as something of our own choosing— a one-way process—the fact is that our avatars come to change how we behave.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Thai (or maybe not) philosophy about happiness
I"m not sure if what is written below is really Thai Philosophy (and I'm not sure if this definition really exists) but I found it in the blog of a Thai friend of mine, and as it seems a little bit strange (or unusual) for our way of living, I just defined it as Thai Philosophy, not becuase they are strange, but because I think they have somethig different from us in the way they see the world and they enjoy the happiness.
How can people always create a happily comfort mind? And answers are:
They are confident that they are interesting, and believed in Can-Do attitude
They accept mistakes and always ready to improve every time
They are opened-mind people and always listen to other people comments and suggestions
They see value themselves. They think everyone has his own lovely space in this beautiful world
They avoid uphappy/depressed things. When realizing that they are unhappy, they try to find solutions for it. They do not ask "WHY this happens to me?" but "HOW can I solve?"
They dare to fail. They accept CHANGE and think difficult tasks or new problems are challenges
They have a dream and they follow their dream
They have Nam-Jai (น้ำใจ). Nam-Jai is a Thai word that I cannot find an English word to replace it. It means you know how to give and share without thinking about to want something back from your kindness.
They respect and do not look down themselves. They do not do something that devalue their name and family.
They always add color in life. They give smile to themselves and everyone around them
