The categories you have to choose from when signing up for a Hotmail or Yahoo! mail account or Secret Life account are generally quite similar: name, email address, password, gender (male/female), country, state, security question and answer, preferred language etc. What was different was Secret Life's "Choose a Look" category where you had to pick an avaitor to use in the game-world.
I guess the main problem with these categories is the gender category. Having only male or female to pick from in the drop down box would be problem for those who believe their gender identity is more fluid, and I guess this is therefore discriminating against those who don't consider themselves either of those categories.
The sort of identities visible in the profiles of Lavalife are placed into categories of age, location, height, body type, ethnic background, smoking and drinking habits, Zodiac sign etc.
I guess this presumes that these are the things that the majority of viewers who want to browse through numbers of profiles will use to decide whether or not to pursue with that person any further and also what the users making the profile believe the viewers want to see. The problem with this being that it is putting labels on people we might not have ordinarily done in real-life.
1 comment:
Along with the same lines with Emily: Windows and Yahoo ask the basics, and it is interesting to think that how many times, since you been using internet, you would have filled those details of yourself... mh, anyway, i also looked into the privacy policy and it said something like, windows live ID is using cookies and other technologies to keep a track of your interactions. and what they claim is that this is a way of 'creating a personal experience.' could this cme ack to the internet regulations discussion by suggesting that there is actually an excessive amount of control already existing in the world of Internet.
Second life is something that has come up in different contexts lately, so decided to register and see what is all about... At least it is a totally different concept compared to e-mail services, however still using the personal profile and information as an essential element. will be interesting to see what it is all about.
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