The Cross-Dressing Psychiatrist
This article really made me open up my eyes to the technology world that we all experience everyday. When Lewin created the Julie persona, people believed it for years and she developed very deep freindships and relationships with the people she came in contact with. People really opened up to her, confided in her, and trusted her. I feel that as a psychiatrist, Lewin should have known better than to create a false persona online and let it get that out of control with things. I understand that it started as a way for him to help women more because they would open up to him thinking that he was a women, but you can not decieve people like that. This article also demonstrates how easy it is for someone else to create a false persona online or to present false information about themself. I know a lot of people have facebook and myspace and this article has really made me reflect on how easily it would be for people to create false facebook or myspace accounts. They could post a picture that isnt them, and profile information that is all made up. This article shows how scary it can be to trust people that you have met online that you do not actually know. If a psychiatrist is decieving people, how many other people out there are also decieving people and lying about themselves? And how safe are we when we meet people online and talk to them? Should we trust them? This article posed a lot of interesting questions and has really made me think about how honest or decieving the internet, and chat rooms really are.
posted by Nicole at 1:25 PM
17 Comments:
I found this article very interesting. Most of us are aware of the dangers of online communications, but that doesn't really stop us from using the Internet as a way to meet people. I know people who have used online dating programs, and they're now happily married. I think this article sheds light on the complexity of online communications. However, I don't think it's always a bad thing.
When I was in middle school, and my family got our first computer, I would talk to people in chat rooms. I never shared who I really was, or where I was from. I always made up a fake person; it was an entertaining game for me.
Whether it's to help other people, like the psychiatrist in the article, or to just have fun, people will continue to create false personas online because they can. I wonder if the social "rules" we have in our society will ever apply to the virtual world...
This article was the most interesting one that we have read so far in my opinion. I always figured that some people that you chat with online weren't who they said they were but this article confirms it. If a psychiatrist does this, just imagine the psychos that would do this. He really took on a whole new personality and started to get really carried away.
I was really interested in this topic because you hear so much about such of things and this article confirms how real it is.
I felt disturbed when i read this article. I think it is sick to think that there are people out on the internet portraying themselves as someone they are not. I think this Lewin guy has way to much time on his hands. I am not really afraid of talking to people online or meeting people online that are made up because i don't meet people online the only people i talk to online are people i actually know. What does scare me is people getting my information off of the internet and stealing my identity.
First of all, the last comment to this blog proves just how easy it is for people to get into contact with others they don't know online. Killmellq wants to give us a gift? c'mon! Anyway, this article was very interesting, and makes you think just how easy it is to be deceived online. Anyone can go into a chat room, and if they're clever enough then they can come up with an alternate identity. In Lewin's case he came upon the idea by accident. He had the generic screen name 'doctor' and a woman began talking to him about her problems, thinking he too was a woman. This inspired him to come up with a womans persona to help other women. I agree that he should not have let the story get so out of hand, and being a psychiatrist, he should have known what the result could have been. In Lewin's story, things ended all right, with most of the people just being ticked off, no one really got hurt. Sometimes people can create identities in order to steal information, or worse yet, steal someone else's identity. In an information age where all of this stuff is floating around, everyone needs to be careful.
The part that shocked me the most was how Lewin was not able to make enough friends when he was himself, but within a couple clicks and a change of a name he can become a very popular personality. It really shows how wrapped up he had become in the whole thing. What I don't understand, though, is how someone in a professional field can not understand how unethical this was, especially for someone that probably had to sign a HIPPA contract before he started to practice. This article really demonstrates how careful you have to be if you want to participate in chat rooms, because there are probably a million more Julie Grahams out there.
It is so disturbing to think that there are people who would actually do this and start this whole ordeal. It would be one thing if he was trying to help the women and never gave any information and just let them draw their own conclusions to his gender. It would have been way less psychotic and more beneficial because he inevitably screwed the people up even more.
To me, this article really wasn't any surprise...I have ran into people online like this throughout my life and you just learn how to tell truth from the lies and basically not trust people.
I agree with Nicole... It's hard for me to believe that Lewin was simply performing a social experiment, especially after he coerced the women into having sex with them. Afterall, he is not really a woman, he is a heterosexual male. The experiment would have been just as successful had he not abused his power.
im suprised people are suprised that ppl do this. anyone ever see 20/20? its been true since the internet existed.
Yes, it is definatly something that we have to think about in today's society, sad but true. There is one thing that no one has mentioned. You aren't put in any physical damage unless you subject yourself to it. We should not jump ahead of ourselves and be scared from the internet. Use caution and common sense, they go a long way in protecting yourself while on the internet. Yes someone may be out to decive, but you do not always need to give in to that deception.
I agree with alot of what Nicole mentioned. It seems that the more technology advances, the more easily people can and will be deceived. This whole "Cross-Dressing" article can make you think twice about anyone you meet. But here's my concern... How many of us actually meet people online and create strong and trustful friendships with them? Sure, it happens, but I think just about everyone is aware of the current creep-o situations. As much as Lewin might hit home, I want to think that much of us are better than to trust anyone we have or never will meet on the internet.
I definitely agree. I found this article a bit disturbing, to think that a psychiatrist would think that this would be a good thing to do for his "patients" is pretty weird. While I was reading I also thought if Lewin did drink and smoke pot while he was talking to his friends online, just like "Julie" did. Although the author didn't address this issue. It was something that I thought might have added to being "Julie". Overall the article was a great example of how deceptive people can be online and how careful we should be when making online friends.
This article refers to things that we all assume might happen if you put too much trust in someone you meet over the internet. I think the big difference- and what makes the deception so hurtful to the people in the story- is that they thought they were talking to a psychiatrist, someone they could really trust.
This article refers to things that we all assume might happen if you put too much trust in someone you meet over the internet. I think the big difference- and what makes the deception so hurtful to the people in the story- is that they thought they were talking to a psychiatrist, someone they could really trust.
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This certainly takes online internet personas to an entire new level. I think in his case he might have actually assumed this personality. If you are assuming a personality more than your actual personality in terms of time, then what is real? This is an interesting question that is raised by the reading.
i agree, decieving someone the way lewin did was wrong, but i wouldnt say he is the worst person in the world for it. One of juli's friends said she felt raped when she found out her real identity. I think thats a ridiculous way of looking at things. Yes, she was decieved, but juli did alot of good to alot of people. What happens if we found out chicken soup for the soul had stories in there that were stretched. Yes it would be decietful but so many people have benifited from stuff like that, and from juli, that the fact that she wasnt 100% real shouldnt take away from all the good she did.
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