a virtual room

Girls utilize the cyber space, much in the way that they would decorate their own space in their physical bedrooms.  As the article “A Virtual Room of One’s Own” discusses, “girls manifest their playful selves by building websites instead of building something out of lego blocks or what have you” (177).  In today’s technological day and age, some girls feel safe in their ability to express themselves from a distance, decorating their myspace pages and live journals with dedication and extreme attention to detail.  Exploring their own identity on their own terms, girls today build websites and hence, build a sense of commitment.  There are safety concerns with life on the web, however, there are benefits if used in a productive and safe environment.  

Personally, the ease with which society allows girls to exist on the web seems to discourage any kind of real (in person) interaction with people their own age.  While for some girls, the web is an outlet through which they can maintain healthy relationships, it also allows for them to drop the drive to seek relationships outside of the cyber realm.  I remember being able to play outside, and run around with my friends.  The internet never really surfaced in my childhood.  It wasn’t until middle school that the addition of AOL really complicated things socially.  Suddenly, it was all about what kind of screen name you picked to express yourself, and how many friends you had on your buddy list.  

My mother didn’t allow me to have a computer in my bedroom, and for some reason I remember thinking that my ability to connect and build relationships with people outside of school was stunted and that it was her fault.  Silly, in retrospect, I know.  It is now, reading these articles about virtual spaces and girls in Ghana, that I recognize that I didn’t see the imbalance of technology in my social life.  Technology wasn’t functioning as a way for me to grow closer to people, instead, it was driving me away from my Mom, causing me to think that because I couldn’t use it, my ability to represent myself was taken away from me.  Learning not to rely on its use has reminded me that the relationships we build in person are just as capable of being healthy and “safe” as those explored and shared in a virtual world.