Hi Everyone,

So, the text I have chosen to work with in our class this quarter is Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  I do not consider myself a Victorianist nor am I particularly attached to the novella, but I appreciate how it seems to be infinitely interpretable both in criticism and in adaptation.  Here's a Guardian article briefly discussing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde's interpretive history.

However, for my actual blurb, I'd like to include a quote (although really the whole article is interesting) from CSO Online which is essentially an online magazine about information security and risk. This particular article discusses online personalities and how the internet provides a way for people to lead double lives (one that they use in real life and one that they use as an online profile). What I find interesting about the article is that  more than just discussing a potential problem, the author then gives a brief sermon on how one should behave properly on the internet so that one doesn't fall into the temptation of doing what Jekyll did to his own personality.

"Can online identities really be kept private to pursue online indulgence?" . . . "People often go out of their way to hide online acts from the ones they love and lie to those who love them."

"Does being principled only mean not violating your own ethical bottom line? What if your ethical bottom line allows sending inappropriate pictures of little children? Are my principles merely reflections of federal or state law or company policy? Is that the best we can do?

More important than these objections is the fact that there is actually a better way: Surf your values. Connect your offline values and convictions with your online world. Practice virtual integrity. This means real transparency and accountability for online actions. Yes, we can still have fun and be anonymous on the Internet. But we must be wary of using browser controls, proxy servers, other privacy tools and online anonymity to feed a conscienceless shadow self or we will suffer a similar fate to that of Dr. Jekyll"

While I do not appreciate the article's moralizing tone or the rather simplistic interpretation of Dr. Jekyll, considering that one of the major forums for this class is an online blog, perhaps it's something we should all think about. If no actual class time existed during which we could all congregate in each other's physical presence, what would stop anyone here from presenting the persona he/she wants everyone to see, rather than who he/she actually is?

-Lee

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