Exploring Our Inner-self in Cyberspace
Cyberspace is a new communication medium which enables us to understand our social behavior. In the ‘real world’ and ‘virtual world,’ we understand ourselves by developing aspects of our identity. However, in the virtual world, we can explore our inner-self without rejection that may be experienced in the real world. Cyberspace is, thus, a psychological ‘space’ to build and form, explore and discover, and accept and understand ourselves. To explain this, we must view this on an individual and collective perspective. Identity in cyberspace allows an individual to construct themselves, and culture in cyberspace allows individuals to engage in social interactions which involve identity construction. Nevertheless, there are advantages and disadvantages to identity and culture in cyberspace which will be discussed.
We represent ourselves digitally in various ways to construct our identities. Operating anonymously by constantly changing aliases is a way for nobody to know your true identity, yet you are still trying to figure out who you are. Sherry Turkle believed that ‘most use the digital domain to exercise a more true identity, or a multiplicity of identities.” (Silver, 2003). According to Turkle, we create online identities to help understand our offline lives. An example is the use of avatars, where individuals create an icon to represent themselves. We construct ourselves by allowing our true self be viewed by people worldwide without the fear of rejection. Turkle claims that the online world allows us to “project ourselves into our own dramas, dramas in which we are producer, director, and star.” (Soules, 2001). We create fictional characters with different personali...
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In “Modern Romance,” Celeste Biever describes romantic relationships in the Internet community. She describes how people can romantically be involved on the Internet and how the Internet teaches one to learn about a person from the inside out.In “Cyberspace and Identity,” Sherry Turkle also expresses her interest in the Internet and how it allows for the act of self-exploration. Even though their focus on what the Internet is used for are different from the perspective of one another, Biever and Turkle both see the Internet as a place for exploration in a general sense.
Ever since the dawn of time, people have been communicating with others around them and with today’s technology people can interconnect with people across the globe. They have access to a wider range of peers and colleagues like no other time period and the possibilities continue to advance these communications. Yet as those in the world continue to make new friends and hear the opinions of more people they slowly develop a dual personality. Though people have always had parallel identities, one for family and friend, and another for acquaints and strangers, as Barbara Mellix points out in her essay. Mellix is a writer and educator who’s essay “From the Outside, In” tells how she grew up learning two identities so she could function in both her personal world with close family and friends, and her world that dealt with others. Now as the world of the others has expanded with the help of technology so has the use of the second identity and it has taken the form of the online identity. People’s second online identity is always on an aggressive defense, paranoid to the point of any wrong thing said or unsaid could lead to a fight, and they tend to only be happy when there is someone to attack. In the physical world where people are surrounded by true friends and people they trust with their emotions and they are more caring and sympathetic of others’ pain. However the online identity poses a threat to the personal identity as people begin to pull traits from one identity to the next. Although not having an online identity Mellix can relate to this with an experience that involved confusing her identities. Mellix describes how when her personalities become mixed, she was puzzled about who she was and who belonged in her personal iden...
However, what many internet users do not realize that the internet web evaluates one’s thoughts and bases the outcome information to where it satisfies the user’s need. As Anderson notes “everything we do is thrown in to a big calculation. Like they’re watching us right now” (97). For example, most social media websites have now adapted and dedicated major space of their website as a portion of advertisement which, in fact, it advertises for products based on individual interest and his/her pervious search. Furthermore, following social media trends and sharing our personal thoughts about specific topic on the internet are some of the aspects that the internet studies about our identities. Analyzing what we are experiencing on the internet as human being, we can conclude that world of technology throws everyone based on his personality to where he/she belongs and “these demographic studies that divide everyone up into a few personality types”
Individuals conceived between the years of 1980 and 2000, as indicated by this article, experience serious difficulties finding their actual self due to the online networking outlets; they regularly depict another person life of a fantasy dream American life on the web. As today’s more youthful era makes the transition to adulthood, trying to accommodate between online and offline characters can be hard. “Van den Bergh asked 4,056 individuals, ages 15 to 25, when they felt they were or weren't being genuine online or logged off, with companions, folks, accomplices or employers.” Through this research he found,
In an article called “Relationships, community, and Identity in the New Virtual Society” Arnold Brown explains two different identities one that he calls “found identity” and the other “made identity” (34). The found identity is one that is created by one true self, it’s based off your background, your religion, your sex, everything that truly defines who you really are. And then there’s your made identity the one you make for yourself and how you wished to be seen. As technology advances, the easier it will be for young girls to create these made identity’s of out these famous celebrities, having them focus on things that don’t matter instead of valuing who they really are.
Works Cited The Matrix. Larry Wachowski, DVD, Warner Brothers, 1999; Bruskman, Amy. "Finding One's Own in Cyberspace" Composing Cyberspace Edited by Rich Holeton, San Fransisco: McGraw Hill, 1998, 171-180 Rheingold, Howard. " The Heart of the Well" " Composing Cyberspace Edited by Rich Holeton, San Fransisco: McGraw Hill, 1998, 151-163
In both works, the authors identify how the influence on technology is changing how humans identify themselves. Carr using his experience to explain this idea giving the reader the idea that he is feeling the effect technology is taking in his identity. “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory “(53). He gives the reader a firsthand insight of how the influence of technology has change his own identity changing his mind as a whole. He also gives the example of becoming machinelike. A metaphor he uses to explain that humans are becoming emotionless, and less caring for certain ideas. They are becoming cold and brainless are the new part of their identity altering the ability to think. While, Turkle uses everyday life examples to emphasize this point. She states that people create avatars online to be represent their self the way they want to be. However, being able to change a certain aspect of an individual life alters the way they perceive who they are. According to Turkle “people who gain fluency in expressing multiples aspect of self may find it harder develop authentic selves. Some people who write narratives for their screen avatars may grow up with too little experience to share their real feelings with other people” (289). The meaning behind Turkle words is that technology is influencing how individuals view themselves, and become remapping the idea that humans are social
...order to get better jobs and earn more money, to get to the good life, yet influenced by what colleges want them to learn and what employers want them to know: these all may or may not be the same thing. What employers want out of college graduates is also based on money: who can do the job the fastest and best, who can save or make money for the business. What is clear is that the university or college which is purely a "meeting of the minds," a place for people to gather and learn for the sake of learning, seems to be becoming a thing of the past. It is being replaced by an increasingly commercialized system of higher education: one that costs more and more each year--with the cost rising much faster than the rate of household incomes, and one that is being altered by the needs of an increasingly diverse student population and the needs of the business world.
In “Cyberspace and Cyberculture” Ken Hillis describes cyberspace as “imaginary and metaphorical” (Hillis 324) and cyberculture as “the cultural practices which occur in cyberspace” (Hillis 324). To which he claims that cyberspace and cyberculture are must exist as a pair. Because cyberculture must happen in a space, this space is by definition, virtual, and so it must have no physical dimensions (Hillis 324-325). Nevertheless, cyberspace is still space: A place where people can gather and share ideas. This is particularly true in reference to the Internet. Environments such as facebook.com, the fading Myspace.com, and specialty sites such as Last.fm, which cater to music enthusiasts, all operate in an effort to lubricate human interaction, and depend on those interactions to stay active. Their business depends on it. For example, Facebook.com is worth an estimated 300 million US dollars a year (Forbes).
Ethel Cindy R. Lucero English M01A Ms. Janet Cross April 16, 2001 A Gender Twist One great allure of computerized communication systems is their ability to allow participants to effortlessly reshape their selves and their appearance through the manipulation of words and images or representations rather than through modification of the physical body, a process requiring access to advanced biomedical technologies beyond the reach of most individuals. These communication systems allow people to escape boundaries and categories that have in the past constrained their activities and their identities. In communication, knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction. Yet in the disembodied world of the virtual community, identity is also ambiguous. Many of the basic cues about personality and social role we are accustomed to in the physical world are absent.
Holeton, Richard. Composing Cyberspace Identity, Community, and Knowledge in the Electronic Age. The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. 1998. Reid and Count Zero. Cult of the Dead Cow. March 2003. 30 September 2003. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/hackers/interviews/reidcount. html>
Dretzin, Rachel, prod. Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Fron. Dir. Rachel Dretzin. 2010. PBS. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
This paper aims to explore the different reasons behind people having different personas in Twitter and real-life through a look at how the social networking site provides a unique opportunity for self...
Multiple identities have been increased by the creation of cyberspace communications according to "Cyberspace and Identity" by Sherry Turkle. Turkle uses four main points to establish this argument. Her first point is that online identity is a textual construction. Secondly she states that online identity is a consequence-free moratorium. Turkle's third point is online identity expands real identity. Finally, her last point states that online identity illustrates a cultural concept of multiplicity. I disagree with many aspects of her argument and I have found flaws in her argument. Technology is an area that does not stand still and consequently outpaced Turkle's argument.
The Web. 11 Nov. 2013.. http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/teens-social-media_b50664> Floridi, Luciano. The Construction Of Personal Identities Online. Minds & Machines 21.4 (2011): 477-479.