Hello, my name is...

Hi, I'm Talia (Wissner-Levy). I'm a third year student here majoring in Natural Resources. I don't like to use the term junior or senior because it implies that I know when I will be graduating, which as of this week has changed several times. I consider both Great Neck, Long Island and Israel to be my home for reasons that are too taxing to explain here. I've worked in a lab here, am part of a sorority, teach and babysit kids over the weekend, and currently I am working on research dealing with fish and how they absorb mercury and other scary chemicals into their system.

I'm taking this course because I loved psychology while taking it in high school. Human behavior continues to perplex me and lately, I'm especially shocked on our dependance on the internet for everything. As Brianne previously said, our generation grew as the internet grew so it's hard to access how people's behaviors changed before and after the explosion of the internet since most changes can be attributed to just growing up and entering new stages of life. However, I do wonder if the internet makes us braver, lazier, dependant, reclusive, more contemplative or anything in the long term. I also used to dabble in chatrooms on AOL (the same kind Wallace describes) or 'synchronous chats' as a middle schooler when I first discovered the internet and was fascinated at the fact that an entirely different identity than the one in "real-life" can be created, and most people in my experience believed that the personality I conveyed in the chatroom was true to my real life self.

Going to chatrooms was like spying in on conversations I'd always wanted to hear. For example, I went to chatrooms of subject matter where I knew would meet people with completely opposing views than mine. I went to chatrooms that indicated people on the opposite side of the political spectrum would join. Sometimes I would be a fly on the wall and just scroll and read what these people had to say and try to make sense of their logic. Usually it strenthened my personal opinions because I took the chatters to be representive of all people of their political leanings. If the people in the chatrooms seemed misguided, or dumb, it further solidified my opinion that I was right. Sometimes I would be argumentative because I was convinced that just by my supreme convincing power, I could change these total strangers' opinion forever. However, I don't think my ideals and opinions have been changed by a chatter and I don't think I've convinced anyone in turn that they were wrong and I was right. As Wallace pointed out, I probably wouldn't have ever confronted these people in real life or used the sharp, caustic tone I did, but anonymity gives great power and chatrooms to me give misleading impressions yet real insights into who we are and who we might be talking to.

I haven't been to a chatroom since the seventh grade but it still is amazing the motivations behind people that regularly go into chatrooms. Do they seek solace in other people's company? Value a random person's opinion? Wish to convey a personality that they wish they had in real-life? Or maybe, as I did, wish to understand those different from themselves.