Faking it: The Virtual Lawyer

3-28-06
Who wouldn’t want to live in a place where you can look however you want to look, and be whoever you want to be? Let us backtrack: Michael Lewis exclaims, “We have no ‘self’ as such.” We are merely a compilation of the copious masks we create for the endless play of socials situations with which we are faced throughout our lives. Regardless of the masks, however, certain things about us cannot be immediately changed, or hidden. Those things can include, but are not limited to, our figure, or looks, our past, our stories, our reputations, etc. And while yes, we can work away at these things, it takes time, and it takes effort.
That’s what most people do. If their figure is not satisfactory, they change their diet and exercise. If their reputation precedes and impedes them wherever they go, they change their attitude, change their style, and change the public’s mind. Others do not care to cover the imperfections that their masks still reveal; they rely on the theory that people should like you for who you are. (But who are they really, is not that attitude a mask in itself?) And there is another group who has found another way to hide these imperfections. They have found a place where they can virtually recreate themselves from scratch. Or are they simply setting up a whole new set of masks?
The Internet provides an easy solution for people who are not happy with certain aspects of themselves. It hardly takes effort, they have only to dream exactly who it is they wish to be and to put it into written word. Two of my closer friends rely on the net for this particular escape. When real life doesn’t go their way, there will always be someone, somewhere who shares their opinion. It is only a matter of finding them. On the Internet, you make yourself whoever you want to be. Listeners have to take your word; there no way for them to verify what you say really.
Marcus Arnold may not necessarily have had qualities he wanted to negate and recreate on the Internet. He fell mostly under the category of indifference. Marcus Arnold only went to the Internet to find an easy way into something.
Why does the Internet make it so much easier? The Internet is a whole new set of social situations to which we needed to build a whole new set of masks, as Lewis tells his readers. But the Internet in itself is one big giant mask that “negates and recreates” your real life existence. As a result, secondary masks do not have to be so intricate since they are just details on the larger mask that is the Internet.
In agreement with Michael Lewis and his role theorists, I doubt we have actual “selves” behind our countless layers of masks. Different situations call for different masks and combinations of masks. Some people (like Marcus Arnold) just take advantage of the lack of necessity for detail as the layers pile on. And the path to their destination is made that much easier.

Yikes. Did I even say anything in that? Did that even make sense? No. Um... no. I've developped an opinion on the matter now, although I clearly hadn't developped one at the time. And the one I hold now, differs from the one I randomly chose in this paper. This paper is not only poorly written, it's obsolete. Sweet.