Final: Plurk

Watching Tony Prichard plurk in class is why I chose this prompt. To see a man become an other. Something that he created and continues to create and manipulate. Something that he loves and thrives off of. And the way that it’s done is through misspellings and impulse and extreme contemplation. But what is most interesting to me is that despite the fact that we have a huge barrier up (we are bodiless, free of tones, lacking inflection, strictly words! Able to become ANYTHING!) we still show our soft sides. Express our true feelings on subjects. Perhaps this is because plurk is so real that if we lied, we feel that we’d lose ourselves. This is the most surprising thing to me about nanotext. That despite his experience, he still reveals his true self. I was shocked to read that he liked our class and would miss us. For some reason I do not associate a faceless force with sensitive emotions. Is this part of the plan to make him more complex? He is fairly absolute about so many things and seems to be an outrageously well-educated informer, yet is able to be pushed around by our drunk professor. How does this make sense? And when does nanotext become Tony? Perhaps there is a breach where the two cannot be differentiated. It is not when we see nanotext typing. It is not when he talks about Tony. And to say that it’s when he really means it is inaccurate because I’m fairly certain that he believes everything posted. Maybe it’s not important to differentiate the two because both are an extension of the other. A Doppelganger of sorts. 

Last Tuesday Dominic said something along the lines of “Plurk is sort of like people’s mental diarrhea.” This may be true, but it is useful shit. Ideas that are unedited offer a view into someone’s life when they are off guard. I assume that people read my plurks, but not very thoroughly and don’t pay enough attention to notice trends or draw conclusions. This however is a very false security. Someone’s plurks/stupid ideas might be the purest way to judge them. One of my favorite things is following Mantra, reading his well thought out statements and challenging responses, then discovering tetris porn among his posts. The Internet provides an environment where an uncensored (proven by cephalopod’s unending talk of her undies) self is acceptable. In class, we are expected to be respectable students by society’s standards. Plurk is our freedom from that.

When we experience people’s thoughts sans their bodies, our judgments are more pure, whole, genuine. Over eighty percent of communication is non-verbal. To put things strictly in words is a completely new experience. To be judged only by what you’re saying and have your words stand alone. This makes what is said more powerful and you powerless. Because who we are becomes something that doesn’t matter. Our words a complete other from ourselves.

Plurk allows us to control our other. Of the millions, this may be the closest we come to actually creating an other. Though we post stupid impulsive, ridiculous ideas, this is perhaps the point. That plurk is the other that first comes to mind. The natural us. Our instantaneous reactions thought out for less than thirty seconds. But the natural us is not the true self so that theory can be tossed.

So much of what I do I feel needs explanation. I want to explain my creative endeavor. I want to explain my plurks. But the 140 words is awesome at forbidding this. I feel as if I’m breaking the rules if I post 140 words continuously. Putting my out of my comfort zone makes it exciting to post even a simple thought and makes me realize that they do become reality by my thinking them. Plurk makes the idea that thoughts are creations tangible and enhances the experience and feeling that our thoughts become our other. The way that I think has changed. It has become brief. Then I interpret it. It’s remarkable and wonderful and I think is helping me get closer to thinking without an expected result. A statement spurs a thousand thoughts and I can become my own muse.

The experience of plurk in class is perfect. The interaction of being bodiless and in a group setting simultaneously is bizarre and wonderful. This is the ultimate social setting. To say what you want and have it be taken objectively or to really state an opinion and be heard human to human. It makes it so you can convey almost anything you think in a way that will be interpreted how you want. Human interaction is so binding with mistakes that can be made and miscommunications. The option to be bodiless or human is awesome and makes what is said meaningful. Knowing that the idea could mean a totally different thing if presented in a different way and that the author intentionally chose the best way to communicate. Most of what is said is heard just the way I want and because of that, I feel that I've gotten to know my classmate so much better knowing their plurk selves than ever could be achieved with lame human interaction.