Online accounts are like shopping purchases for Krisel Macatangay (IV AB PoS). She maintains at least 11 active accounts online. “When you go to the mall, [a] pair of [shoes] is never enough,” she says. “You have to get [shoes] in all colors, all styles. [It is the same with my accounts]; I just [want to] have them all.”

She owns a wide range of accounts online—from blogging sites to photo sharing sites to e-mail accounts. Checking up on these virtual outlets has become her daily habit. “I’ve been hooked on the Internet since forever,” she says. “I really can’t remember when I got started.”

Individuals like Krisel are engrossed with what the interconnected networks phenomenon has to offer. In his 2002 book Virtual Society?: Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, author Steve Woolgar says that approximately 10% of the world’s population use the Internet regularly. 94% of these users have expressed the need to communicate with an audience, which is their main reason for going online. And after more than half a decade since Woolgar conducted his study, along with the proliferation of networking sites, one can presumably hypothesize just how much the number of worldwide Internet users has increased.

With the World Wide Web allowing its users to venture into a seemingly border-free virtual world, and with these individuals establishing a pervasive online presence, is the offline world being left out?

Caught in the net

In Online Connections: Internet Interpersonal Relationships, author Susan Barnes says that people who use the Internet have personal motives and goals when interacting with others. “For some people, the Internet can begin to replace face-to-face encounters and the telephone as a way to stay ‘in touch’ with friends and family,” she writes. “For others, it is an important way to connect with people and community.”

For Krisel, her accounts online exist for a variety of reasons: creative release, shopping, and communication. “It’s convenient,” she says. “The satisfaction is in being able to reach people even when you are not with them physically. [For example, if] my best friend is on the other side of the world, I can [write a blog entry] about [my] happenings and she will be able to read it.”

Bloggers like Krisel turn to the Internet because they find it easier to reveal their innermost feelings in text-only correspondence, according to Barnes. She writes, “The process of self-disclosure tends to occur more quickly in online relationships than face-to-face ones.”

Krisel owns a number of blogs online, each one serving its distinct purpose. “[My] WordPress [blog] is where I put all my private stuff, Blogspot for my poems and stories, [and] Livejournal for everything else. That way, [my entries and my thoughts are] organized.”

While there are various alternatives to blogging like keeping a written journal, Krisel says detaching herself from the cyber world is unlikely. “As a writer, I don’t think I could ever completely let go of blogging,” she says. “Sometimes, [it is] just the easiest way to share your thoughts with other people. It’s like getting published for free and without [being scrutinized by] the snooty editor.”

Krisel has also caught up with the advent of micro-blogging, particularly Plurk. Such a micro-blogging site allows individuals to post entries that are 140 characters in length. Creators of Plurk say the site was designed to provide its users with a balance between blogs and social networking sites and between instant messaging and e-mail messaging.

With every update comes a promise of karma increase, granting users exclusive emoticons and site privileges. It is because of this that Plurk is Krisel’s most visited online account.

Although she already maintains a number of journals in cyberspace, micro-blogging keeps her interested in a different way. “[Blogging is] hardcore writing. It takes a lot of work,” she says. “I have to make sense. I check my grammar. With Plurk, everything’s just random and spontaneous and free.”

Krisel turns to cyberspace as it provides her with the convenience of doing things that are also done offline with just a few clicks of the mouse. Though this may be the case, Krisel is still very much part of the offline world. “Although constantly chatting and [blogging] may keep your friends updated with your life, [these are] no substitute for hanging out and having fun [with friends offline],” she says.

Faceless expression

Similar to blogging where personal information about one’s self and life is disclosed, Selene Uy (III AB Comm) moderates CodeBlued2, a Blogspot account patterned after Post Secret, a website featuring postcards with secrets written on them. These postcards are mailed in from around the world. “I was really struck by some of the secrets on [Post Secret],” she says. “Those secrets made me want to send in some of my own. I know that a lot of people would feel the same way.”

But setting aside personal ventures, Selene says she put up CodeBlued2 for other reasons as well. She says, “I wanted an avenue for Filipinos to be able to share their secrets, to learn from each other, and to ultimately feel that they are not alone.”

Barnes says that sharing of feelings online tends to bring a group together as a community, as in the case of CodeBlued2. There are times when individuals may feel frustrated because they have difficulty sharing their emotions face to face. They turn to cyberspace instead.

CodeBlued2 is updated on a weekly basis, with the creatively presented secrets accompanied by letters and songs. “[Creativity] puts an image behind the text. When you have a more concrete idea of something you’re hiding, it is easier to let go of it,” Selene says. “Plain text revelations would [also] be less interesting and [would make the secret] more ambiguous to the readers. Part of the ‘letting go’ effect comes from knowing that there are people who have read, shared, and understood your secret.”

Secrets sites like CodeBlued2 are not just a hit because of the anonymity they guarantee, says Communication Lecturer Andrew Ty. “The tendency in posting anonymously is because you can,” he says. “[When you are] online, you are separated from your body. You are not particularized.”

Selene adds that CodeBlued2 is a speedy way for individuals to confide in other people. “[It is a] short-term solution to taking the weight off your shoulders,” she says. “Plus, it is safer to tell your secret online [because] no one will know it is you.”

Authors of Online Communication: Liking Technology, Identity, and Culture Andrew Wood and Matthew Smith say that although anonymity allows individuals to protect their identities, it can also distance them from taking responsibility for what they say.

True enough, Selene says posting secrets online promotes dependency on the site for solutions to the problems stated in the entries. “It is harder to actually get over the secret when you post it online as compared to really talking with someone,” she says.

Majority of the secrets on Selene’s site are rested on the different kinds of love. Emma*, a junior, is one of the regular secrets senders. “[Posting secrets online is] my way of venting out things that are bothering me. [These are] things I couldn’t say to the people involved,” she says. “It is relieving when you find out that there are others out there who can relate to you. It removes the feeling of being alone.”

For Emma, confiding in CodeBlued2’s visitors is an option she takes since she does not get the same satisfaction from offline relationships. She says, “When I send the secrets to CodeBlued2 where others read it, it feels like disclosing all the repressed feelings I have to another person without any fear of being found out, taunted, [or] laughed at.”

Reality extended

Though Krisel, Selene, and Emma find a sense of security on the Web as they share a piece of themselves, they say they are still very much connected to the offline world, one that is not mediated by a computer.

But reality does not solely rest on the offline world, argues Ty. “We are all online almost as much as we are offline,” he says. “At some point in our lives, we use ‘Google’ as a verb. We have completely absorbed it into ourselves. To that extent, the Internet is an extension of reality.”

In fact, Ty says cyberspace is not less of a reality than offline. “Online, if you want to and if you have the technology, you can actually make the online interaction closer to basic face-to-face interaction,” he says.
For Krisel, the Web is an extension of her offline activities. She says, “When it comes to school and org work, sometimes I get even more stressed when I go online [because there are] a lot of messages waiting for me to read or people wanting to talk to me.”

In Selene’s case, meanwhile, her secrets site is just another way to deal with reality. “Acknowledging you have a secret is keeping in touch with reality, [because you know] that you have something within yourself,” she says.

Selene adds that CodeBlued2 is also an outlet for individuals to take on their real identities—identities that are inhibited from what they normally show. “When they send a secret, they admit things that are hidden,” she says. “[They show] facets of who they really are.”

*Name has been changed to protect the individual.