Symone Williams-Yamamoto Prologue and Story one

I felt that this story provided an interesting metaphor for who we are in cyberspace and the implications that our personalities may take on within that space. One part I found particularly profound was when he cop asks the narrator if 29 is too old to play pretend. 2003 does not seem far away, but there has been a shift in mentality toward being online. We are no longer pretending to occupy cyberspace, and I have trouble saying whether or not we ever pretended in cyberspace because we apply almost every part of our being into the cyberspace. The avatars we choose and how they perform are reflections of our daily performances.
As a communications student, I've learned that every interaction is essentially a performance. We are never truly "real" with each other or ourselves. As I read this story, it became evident to me how we perform in cyberspace. Cyberspace is even more so a performance because there is much more fluidity to who were are online. For example, social media is us putting on different hats to different audiences. Our Instagram is more glamorous than our Facebook because the performance on each platform is different. The fact that the cop perceived the game was a way to paint how we are varying in performance online. To some, cyberspace is to express a completely different self, to play dress-up in a mystified area, and others use it to express what  they perceive as their identify. This brings the question of whether or not Shawn is guilty. He was essentially performing for the team, and there is no way to be certain if Shawn was being his ideal self online or his true self. Sense of self plays a large role in this story.

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