Thesis - Concept/Project Description

Overview / Thesis Statement

Who decides the special days of my life? My project deals with two diaries of my life: one for the web and the other one for the real world. The stories online are often judged by how many comments they get from readers. The more comments a story has, the more popular it is; that is the basic rule. I enjoy my life both online and offline. Although there are always my handwritten notes showing how I feel in my paper diary, there is not always the same true feeling online. Sometimes I think my day is special because I get a great reaction from people online. Even though the day in my diary is not that special, I forget how I feel that day. Therefore, my day is more decided upon people’s reaction than how I truly feel that day.

My intention is not about making me feel the same, whether it is online or offline. Actually I just want to see how different I am when it comes to expressing myself online and offline. The intent is not to provide a pure analysis between online and offline activity, however it can show the result of how an average female in her 20s uses two different forms of media at the same time.

Rationale

We are surrounded by many forms of media and they created the situation that one person can have multiple characters. A different persona might be something that people want to have. Sometimes, people want to act differently online because they don’t like who they are in the real world. The sad part of it is that the satisfaction of expressing oneself differently online is not going to make the person have the real joy in the real world. The expression can be different based upon who the audience is. In my opinion, that makes the big difference between writing something on paper and posting something online. Most of time when you write a note by your hand, you know who is going to read. For example, my diary has the only one audience who is myself. I am the one who knows myself the most and that is why my day in my diary and online is different. Simply because I don’t have to think about how other people think of me, I can express my feeling as it is in my diary.

Goal

I started this project because I found myself being different in online and offline. The reason why I am being different would be the difference of audience and action that I take. I have learned that I should care about how other people think more than how I think. In my society, how people think of me becomes who I am. And I think the same culture soaks into the online community. Knowing who I am is very important to me. Different language, culture and background make me often depressed and confused. Although online connects everywhere, there is still cultural difference. The only place I can be truly myself is inside me; my feeling. So, knowing me and understanding my feeling is critical. I believe that this project will give me the chance to look at my pattern of using 2 different media with the same contents. And hopefully, I can learn more about how it affects my life and my identity.

Audience

This is mainly for myself.

Concept diagram