Week Three - Topic 2c: Adopting a mark or expressing yourself amongst like minds?

Far from adopting a ‘mask’, isn’t one appeal of the Net that you can express your true self among like minds?

Although it can be suggested that you can adopt a ‘mask’, or take on a different identity when online, another appeal of the Internet is that you can be your true self with others who are similar to you, or who share the same interests.
Shaun Wilbur put forward the idea that when you are online, you are free from any real life stress or worries from feeling outcast. As people from all over the world are on the Web, you can find other individuals who are similar to you. Knowing you’re not alone can result in improved self esteem and confidence.
Being able to express yourself and converse with people who are similar to you is extremely positive in many different ways. It can be from something like finding others who have the same rare hobby or who are fanatics of the same actor, to people who share very rare medial problems.
Whilst researching, I found a group called ‘The Society of Barefoot Living’ which is for anybody who goes barefoot as a lifestyle choice! Their mission is to provide a friendly forum to offer support for ‘bare-footers’ and to help promote acceptance of this lifestyle.
Wilbur’s theory can be applied to this as when the members are online, they are free from the outcast feeling which they probably have in reality.
In this case, the users are being themselves rather than adopting a mask. However, there are also people who exploit the Internet as a place to have another identity.