fashion

One of the big questions of the internet, especially for those who frequent Social Network Sites (like MySpace and Facebook) is “are you human?” One of the ways of understanding this question is through signaling theory, the way we signal to others that we are human, and the specific ways we interact with others in spaces to signal humanness. One of the ways to do this is through fashion, not just fashion of large fashion houses, but the route of fashion as an honest form of signaling group membership. Fashion is a way to show development along the trajectory of a society. It demonstrates social status, high fashion that no ones knows the label of will signal to certain people within the group. A Hello Kitty design will signal to most of society your access within society, your position as knowing Hello Kitty. Within online worlds this is particularly important. We, as humans, are always trying to determine if the asynchronous interaction we’re having is with a human or a machine, and we do that by socially contextualizing the interaction and the person we’re interacting with. If I interact with a person’s MySpace page who has Hello Kitty plastered across their profile background, and they’re number 1 friend is a Hello Kitty fan page, I have a specific idea of who that person is based on their identity signals. If I interact with someone who has PETA plastered across their page, and their number 1 friend is PETA2, I have a very specific idea of the identity of that person, and I know not to show them pictures of my fur coat (assuming I even owned one). Ultimately, it is through fashion, through our signal of social status in an online environment that allows other users to contextualize our humanness, and to present themselves in a friendly manner based on our signal of ourselves. Who knew fashion was such a form of information prowess?? what am i signaling about myself as a blogger, as a blogger on this blog with this photo? what does this signal about my understanding of who reads this blog?