17 thoughts on “Week 11 – New Media Identities (T3)”
Chua Xiu Juan
Sweatshop worker is a term that we are familiar with. We have seen pictures and heard stories of these exploited workers working in poor conditions, earning meagre wages. Nakamura highlighted the virtual sweatshop workers, Chinese gold farmers, individuals paid to work on their online avatar in MMORPGs in order to sell virtual commodities. In the informationalized capitalist industry, these workers appear to have a worse plight than the exploited workers we see on news articles. They are often unseen, unheard, and marginalized by other players due to their violation of the game rules. From the machinimas created by fans or game players centred on racist themes, it seems like they earn little empathy from other players.
It is only in the recent years that the gold farmers have gained more public attention, with media exposure and even a documentary “Gold Farmers” dedicated to them. Despite the media attention, little has been done towards the protection of their labor rights, which remains a tricky issue due to the nature of their work in the informal and virtual economy.
Edwin Lee Xian Ming
Nakamura and Boyd raise very good points on a new for m of capitalism that has appeared with the advent of the internet – informationalized capitalism.
Boyd argues that the virtual world is unlike the physical world in that it does not decay. In other worlds, all information that enters the virtual world is archived and stored within server farms throughout the world.
Although we are the creators, our content takes on a life of its own, becoming the property of the companies who host the platforms we created our content on. Our propensity to mimic our interactive habits online to that of offline behaviours, coupled with a false sense of security due to the lack of awareness o f the architecture in which we host our content, leads to companies exploiting us.
This is an especially important concept for now even leisure has been turned and quantified into economic surplus value – our online interactions and information are harvested by digital algorithms in order to create profiles which companies then sell to advertisers for profit.
Elix Lee
For Turkle, the virtual world allows for the construction of multiple identities. The virtual reality is not real but has a relationship to the real. The online is separate from reality. Nonetheless, there is a blurring distinction between the real and the virtual. She questions the possibility of a true self. If the construction of identity is fluid and multiple, then do we have a sense of true self?
For boyd, there is difference especially in terms of social interactions and sociality. There has to be a distinction made (between the digital and the physical). The body is a provider of context. Boyd is for context as she contends that there should be localizing as opposed to globalizing social interaction. There needs to be not multiple selves (cf Turkle) but a multi-facet one. This insinuates that there is a true self in the first place in order for one to have facets of selves.
Koh Hui Yi
Sherry Turkle’s “Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs” talks about how identity as a process in construction. You learn, develop and evolve which goes to show that identity is not fixed but a process. In fact, there is no static self because with online interaction, the self becomes a project, a source of information on you and it is always been changed, built and transformed. The person we know in primary school will be very different in looks and personality after 20 years because he has transformed and outgrown his old identity. Internet allows the freedom to construct an online identity because there is a detachment of self. The self and identity construction process is not radically different in the Internet from reality but rather it is heightened. We should not think of virtual reality as a separate entity from physical reality but rather in relation to one another.
The Internet or the online social platforms allow you to design your own self in terms of visual appearance of your own Facebook page, the photos you upload, the friends you have, your basic profiles, your interests and hobbies and how you define yourself. It changes how you interact with others. Instead of physical first impression where a person judge you and form their impression of you through how you dress, sound and look, the first impression is centered on how your page, photos look to them. First impression is instead centered mainly on written word online.
However, the internet allows the construction of identity to be fluid and most importantly multiple. We can simply create multiple accounts to project different aspects of our selves on different social platforms. We are born into a reality where different identities is normal. Hence, a second aspect of identity in this situation, is that identity becomes malleable, we are able to self-present and multiple our selves. However, in light of this, the questions of what it means to be you , who you are, questioning of your true self change. Would we still have an original self if there are multiple selves?
Kelyn Phua
With social media today, the online self is the self that is exposed to most people. For example, you might have 800 friends on Facebook, but have only met 200 of them in real life for the past 3 years. The 200 are able to know you through personal interactions but the other 600 know you better by your Facebook shares or Instagram posts – your online identities. In this case by applying Turkle’s concept of consistency, it is difficult to check if one’s online self is true to his real self without personal interaction. I agree with Turkle that an identity is always a projection and can constantly be reinvented. This is why when we see friends we have not met in years, they often act and look very different. Their projections of themselves are reshaped based on their experiences and Turkle argues that this ongoing construction of self happens unconsciously. The self is something we constantly work on, whether online or offline. Just like choosing a profile picture, the portrayal of our real self requires consideration too. This is shown through the outfits we select everyday.
By being able to constantly be online through your smartphone and post things related to yourself online (Instagram photos, Tweets etc), I think that the online self has the ability to become very real if one wants to constantly update stuff. However, the accuracy of the online self depends on how much the user wants to reveal.
Lyndon Leong
Online identities are generally not validated by any means and it therefore brings about certain contentions because of people who chose to misuse the anatomy that online platforms provide. People are also skeptical of users who use online identities as an alter ego when they feel that they are being outcasted in society. With closer inspection, however, there are those who utilise these virtually created identities to seek solace or as a means to escape from the torments of real life. Regardless of the intention, there is an inherent danger when people start blurring the lines between reality and the virtual realm. There are cases where people end up killing themselves as they perceive themselves to be online characters. Therefore, I find cultures such as those which exist in Harajuku, Japan, good because they embrace the idea of bringing virtual identities to life. The activities that these groups of people engage in are also generally harmless. For many people, they might feel a sense of obligation to conform to societal norms and believes that they are not exactly very comfortable with. It becomes extremely difficult to exist in a society where inherent discrimination and stereotyping tend to stop people from being themselves. Perhaps this is why people are being increasingly engaged in their mobile phones and the miniaturisation of technology thus has allowed many of us to escape from social situations that we do not want to engage in.
Bryan Chia Yong Siang
To further elaborate my point on “comparison on doing something”, it means the comparison on the “level of governance” between the two different worlds.
Bryan Chia Yong Siang
The articles assigned for reading have covered extensively on the differences between the cyber space and reality and help bridge sociological issues between the two worlds.
Turkle mentioned the possibility to create multiple identities in the cyber space and one of the issues she mentioned was the ability to construct the ideal self in the cyber space – an element deprived in the reality of the online user. It then highlighted the similarity of “constructed ideal” in both the world. For instance, the “ideal guy” in both the cyber world and reality is one who stands at 1.8m tall, a sharp facial features with permed blonde hair would be classified as cute in both worlds. Next, Boyd highlighted the architecture of digital realm which focuses on the storage ability of the cyber space. “Nothing gets deleted in the internet” is a cliché which is very true. An example would scandals. Despite the local authorities stepping in to regulate scandals, news can still be found on the internet irregardless its timeframe. On top of it, there are social consequences which the victims have to live with and would explain the relationship between the two worlds. Nakamura’s article puts culture into the limelight, specifically, the use of racism to explain the defined culture in the both the virtual and reality. She has also argued that there was an informationalised capitalism involved in the gaming industry where the Chinese players’ were exploited to facilitate the in-game economy.
On top of the mentioned concepts mentioned in the assigned readings, there was also a comparison on doing something between the two worlds circulating in my mind. Government agencies and corporates have been attempting to regulate the internet but, in my opinion, it remains as an ambitious dream. For instance, the amount of effort required to change one’s identity is very much different in both worlds. An identity in the virtual world could be as easy as deleting and recreating another pseudo account as a replacement. However, it would be impossible for us to do in reality as we are all bounded by our biological makeup which is detectable by technology. If the internet were to be regulated as it would in reality – where there is indeed an identity tagged every individual – the virtual world would be part of the reality.
Brandon Lye
I feel that what Turkle and Boyd write in this week’s readings make a lot of sense. Boyd’s article centers on the need for designers of online spacers to inform users of the differences between online and physical structures, and assist them to help make their lives easier. If i’m not wrong, Boyd wrote her article in 2002. I believe that today, most people who frequently visit online spaces are already self-aware of its dangers and limitations. Hence, I feel that a more important agenda for now would be for designers of online architecture to minimize the dangers inherent in these spaces.
With greater development of technology comes greater risks associated with these technologies as well. For instance, credit card frauds and identity misusing are common in today’s world dominated by online spaces. It will be difficult to change people’s lives which revolve so highly around these things. Also, even if individuals take precautionary measures to prevent such incidents, they still happen. Therefore I feel that more should be invested in preventing these risks.
Seow Yi Min Eunice
Turkle’s terming of online interactions as evocative, suggests how these interactions provide an experiential quality to users. This experiential quality is not merely based on observation, rather, users are able to feel and undergo effective encounters both internally (psychosocial) and externally (how the innate experiences translates to the external, physical self). Mentioned by Turkle, the virtual is seen in relation to the “physical” world, and human-instated boundaries to limit/separate the two “spaces” are deem to be misinformed.
Despite agreeing with Turkle that the virtual can be seen in relation to the “physical world”, is it possible to see relation in a different light? While we should not wholly differentiate the virtual from the physical, I feel that there are instances whereby what occurs online (the online persona) may not necessary occur offline (in the physical world).
I.e. An article showed cases of adults who were online cheating (via avatars on an internet game – Second life) giving up their real physical families to pursue their online relationship (taking it offline), only to realize that their online partners were different in real life. The affair did not eventually work out offline.
While online interactions have been termed by Turkle to be evocative, alternatively, the disinhibition (of one’s emotional guard) may have resulted in a different set of experience one could possibly undergo between the virtual and “real”.
In the context of the example given, the online persona one had portrayed to their online partners, may have been a portrayal of the “ideal” identity one wanted to have. Despite psychosocial process undergone (i.e. having the ideal identity and life online), upon meeting up with their online counterparts in real life, the explicit difference between how they are in real life (versus virtually) still acts as a physical boundary between the two worlds.
Thus, an alternative to understanding Turkle would be with the awareness and understanding that we may be viewing these two worlds at different perspectives (virtual – ideal), (physical – less ideal?). The common ground however, would be the social impact both virtual and physical realms have on us, thus should be still be seen in relation to each other.
Aloysius Teo
We often build our lives around the social media such as facebook, instagram, twitter and what not. We upload photographs of ourselves, personal information and our personal interests.Indeed we are able to fashion an image of ourselves over the internet and in so construct identities. We carry these identities in our pockets accessible through our phones and we seem to identify more with them. However, we are NTU students not because facebook says so, but because our matriculation card proves it. Similarly, we are a citizen of Singapore because a card says we are. Therein lies the problem that online identities do not really seem to give us an identity, something that is concrete but instead gives us the ability to manipulate ourselves the way we want others to see us and even a self that we wish we could be.
Muhammad Faisal Bin Zainal Abiden
The article by Nakamura is very interesting as the notion of race and ethnicity is being played within a realm of fictitious races made up of elves, orcs, undead and even pandas. The Chinese gold farmer is easily recognisable by who are adept at the game as they understand the physics and mechanics of that game world. For example, a long time WoW player would recognise a Chinese gold farmer behind the avatar by his/her robotic and repetitive actions, lack of communication and constantly being online (as multiple people play the same avatar). Thus Nakamura’s article refutes Boyd’s point of that identification is problematic in the online world as it lacks the physical assessment signals, such as skin colour.
In another perspective, Nakamura’s article also shows how the online world is not a separate realm from reality. In fact, the online world is merely a microcosm of the real world. The capitalist exploitation of low-wage workers in the real world is mirrored online. So while the low-working class are doing ‘work’ such as mining ores and killing low-levelled monsters in order to provide the real world upper class the virtual gold, armour and weapons for their adventures in the World of Warcraft universe.
This weeks reading reflect on the digital world and identity construction. Sherry Turkle´s writing Construction and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in MUDs from 1994 is an appraisal of the, still rather fresh innovation, of the “computer network known as the Internet” By giving three case studies, Turkle argues against the common idea that players loose themselves in the gaming, are negative and detached from reality. Instead, she claims that the role-playing in gaming communities can help individuals to work through personal problems and will help to construct one´s own identity. This is done on the basis that virtual spaces allow multiple identities, which are not limited to a certain appearance or gender. Moreover, virtual words make one reflect upon ethical and social issues. Consequently, Turkle makes the claim that “people are exploring, constructing, and reconstructing their identities” (p. 166).
Twenty years later, Turkle´s view of virtual words seems too positive. She speaks of them as if they are comparable to a psychological treatment. In my point of view, the Internet may be able to offer a new platform to create one´s social self and explore one´s identity, however their implications of the real world in regards to environmental changes as well as gender equality is rather questionable.
Opposed to that one finds in New Media Identities (2002) that there may be quite a lot of threats found in the digital realm. Here, the claim is made that a strict distinction between what the real and virtual reality is necessary in order for the user not to be mislead. Since the digital architecture is said to be deceptive, one needs to create more awareness in people. Even though for example Google may be able to give quick access, it also gives information that is fragmented and out of context. In regards to someone´s identity this means that every search engine is rather a threat to one´s identity than a contribution. Individiuals cannot control their own representation and are incapable of keeping track of which information of himself is circling around in the net. Then, virtual reality to a great extend alter one´s social structure because it influences the subject´s real life.
Similar to Turkle (1994), this text also points at the importance of identity construction on the Internet and highlights the importance of more awareness for managing one´s online presentation and identity. Looking at Facebook today, where future employers look at one´s profile in order to determine one´s career can only conform this necessity.
Tiara Robyn Chew
I found the article on “Reconsidering social interaction for the Digital Realm” very relatable. For example, it talks about how digitalisation has enabled information to exist in many different forms on all systems through which it has passed, rendering it archived and searchable. I thought about how search engines, like Google, have functions that enable people to retrieve information from its databases with a click of a button, regardless of when the material was produced. I also thought about how the information doesn’t get erased but is embedded within cyberspace indefinitely. Take for instance, the case of Anton Casey, who became infamous after posting scathing remarks about the poor on his Facebook account early in 2014. Despite deleting his account as well as that of his wife’s, his comments spread like wildfire from the social networking site, to online news sites like AsiaOne news, Straits Times online, and The Independent UK, and then finally to the local papers, proving that online activity is not as secure as many people believe. Additionally, the article talks about how digitalisation has enabled instant access to extensive information about others, but that the information may not always be credible or reliable. I supposed we can think about the site, Wikipedia, which is often regarded as a prominent information source, and rightly so, considering it has over 4 million articles in the English Wikipedia alone. However, the fact there there is no administration that determines who is or is not allowed to edit its pages, and that basically anyone with a computer and internet access is able to do so, suggests that we cannot always assume its validity.
Ng Shi Yao
Turkle writes about the MUD games, where gamers can role-play and immerse themselves in their different characters online. Essentially, she cites many examples on the different individuals who lead a double life, both online and offline. More often than not, these users may choose to re-create and invent character with a total different personality and project a different ‘self’- unidentifiable to their real offline selves.
Turkle emphasize that online identities are a projection detached from the real physical environment. Online users have the autonomy and mastery to control our projected selves. This is corroborated by Boyd’s article that the architecture of the internet allows a cloak of invisibility and anonymity to users, who would be able to post what they wish to online, behind their computer screens. The term “localization” refers to the managing of multiple different accounts based on different contexts. In MUD, people regularly explored their identity by assuming different online personas. Similarly, presentations of the ‘self’ online allow greater flexibility as an individual can choose to present a different aspect of them, rather than the one usually presented offline. The cloak of anonymity allows the revelation of particular aspects of the identity.
Taking a “selfie” and then posting it online, is a perfect example of online projection. Users often choose the best angle of their face, adding filters or use overlays of different application to edit and curate their photo. “Selfies” could be explained as a controlled and malleable projection of the ‘self’, at the discretion of the user. This self-presentation often allows the best and most positive image of our selves to be publicized online. In addition, the advent of social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook quantifies a person’s worth, via the number of likes for a particular selfie. The architecture of online spaces (Boyd) only allows the evaluation of a person through numerical data. This erroneous mode of evaluation is often inaccurate and not representative of an individual’s ability.
Melissa Koh
In this technologically oriented world, (multiple) online identities are commonplace. Thus, it comes as no surprise that identities are increasingly ‘commodified’ and online identities become a growing area of interest across the industry, as the value of user data becomes apparent. In the competitive world of advertising, user data is an important currency and companies do not give out user data freely. Up till recently, Yahoo has been exchanging user data by allowing consumers to log into Yahoo with their Google or Facebook credentials. “This reduces what tech types call “friction,” or the trouble creating a separate username and password to use Yahoo.”, meaning that Google and Facebook get access to Yahoo’s user database. Recent news about Yahoo has decided to stop sharing user data with Google and Facebook is an acknowledgement of the value of user data. Thus, user data has become the new ‘asset’ in society.
Zheng Wei
Both Danah Boyd’s article “Faceted Id/entity: Managing representation in a digital world” and Sherry Turkle’s article “Constructions and reconstructions of self in virtual reality: Playing in the MUDs” are fascinating to read as they seem to be on dichotomous end of a spectrum with regards to the view on how representation of self exists online. Boyd believes that there is one true representation of self, and that individuals are disingenuous in a way by creating multiple selves online that may be separate from the rest. On the other hand, Turkle appears to have a different view that there is no one true self. The self is itself a process of constant change. Even in the real world, an individual’s self can change over time due to circumstances, hence virtual spaces merely intensifies or speed up this progressive nature of self. I find myself agreeing more with Turkle’s view, in the sense that the representation of self is not fixed nor is it inherent in an individual in the real world. Instead, we find often that people do change over time. After all, isn’t this the idea of maturity?
This is not to disregard Boyd’s article as I find her discussion on the architecture of online spaces thought-provoking. She also talks a lot about providing context to fully comprehend a situation or individual. This ease of storage and retrieval of past information without sufficient context is an unfortunate danger of the online world now that is not fully appreciated. There is a frequent joke now that future presidential candidates will become more easily discredited as their posts or comments from their past will haunt them in the future. Thus, there is some real world implication to this idea, and we should be careful about our words online. However, this does not appear to be sufficient. It is then a dilemma on what can be done so that misrepresentation or manipulation of the truth does not occur. Perhaps, there will be a terminal point in time where individuals will be so absurdly misrepresented by their past postings that we will eventually disregard online remarks.
Sweatshop worker is a term that we are familiar with. We have seen pictures and heard stories of these exploited workers working in poor conditions, earning meagre wages. Nakamura highlighted the virtual sweatshop workers, Chinese gold farmers, individuals paid to work on their online avatar in MMORPGs in order to sell virtual commodities. In the informationalized capitalist industry, these workers appear to have a worse plight than the exploited workers we see on news articles. They are often unseen, unheard, and marginalized by other players due to their violation of the game rules. From the machinimas created by fans or game players centred on racist themes, it seems like they earn little empathy from other players.
It is only in the recent years that the gold farmers have gained more public attention, with media exposure and even a documentary “Gold Farmers” dedicated to them. Despite the media attention, little has been done towards the protection of their labor rights, which remains a tricky issue due to the nature of their work in the informal and virtual economy.
Nakamura and Boyd raise very good points on a new for m of capitalism that has appeared with the advent of the internet – informationalized capitalism.
Boyd argues that the virtual world is unlike the physical world in that it does not decay. In other worlds, all information that enters the virtual world is archived and stored within server farms throughout the world.
Although we are the creators, our content takes on a life of its own, becoming the property of the companies who host the platforms we created our content on. Our propensity to mimic our interactive habits online to that of offline behaviours, coupled with a false sense of security due to the lack of awareness o f the architecture in which we host our content, leads to companies exploiting us.
This is an especially important concept for now even leisure has been turned and quantified into economic surplus value – our online interactions and information are harvested by digital algorithms in order to create profiles which companies then sell to advertisers for profit.
For Turkle, the virtual world allows for the construction of multiple identities. The virtual reality is not real but has a relationship to the real. The online is separate from reality. Nonetheless, there is a blurring distinction between the real and the virtual. She questions the possibility of a true self. If the construction of identity is fluid and multiple, then do we have a sense of true self?
For boyd, there is difference especially in terms of social interactions and sociality. There has to be a distinction made (between the digital and the physical). The body is a provider of context. Boyd is for context as she contends that there should be localizing as opposed to globalizing social interaction. There needs to be not multiple selves (cf Turkle) but a multi-facet one. This insinuates that there is a true self in the first place in order for one to have facets of selves.
Sherry Turkle’s “Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs” talks about how identity as a process in construction. You learn, develop and evolve which goes to show that identity is not fixed but a process. In fact, there is no static self because with online interaction, the self becomes a project, a source of information on you and it is always been changed, built and transformed. The person we know in primary school will be very different in looks and personality after 20 years because he has transformed and outgrown his old identity. Internet allows the freedom to construct an online identity because there is a detachment of self. The self and identity construction process is not radically different in the Internet from reality but rather it is heightened. We should not think of virtual reality as a separate entity from physical reality but rather in relation to one another.
The Internet or the online social platforms allow you to design your own self in terms of visual appearance of your own Facebook page, the photos you upload, the friends you have, your basic profiles, your interests and hobbies and how you define yourself. It changes how you interact with others. Instead of physical first impression where a person judge you and form their impression of you through how you dress, sound and look, the first impression is centered on how your page, photos look to them. First impression is instead centered mainly on written word online.
However, the internet allows the construction of identity to be fluid and most importantly multiple. We can simply create multiple accounts to project different aspects of our selves on different social platforms. We are born into a reality where different identities is normal. Hence, a second aspect of identity in this situation, is that identity becomes malleable, we are able to self-present and multiple our selves. However, in light of this, the questions of what it means to be you , who you are, questioning of your true self change. Would we still have an original self if there are multiple selves?
With social media today, the online self is the self that is exposed to most people. For example, you might have 800 friends on Facebook, but have only met 200 of them in real life for the past 3 years. The 200 are able to know you through personal interactions but the other 600 know you better by your Facebook shares or Instagram posts – your online identities. In this case by applying Turkle’s concept of consistency, it is difficult to check if one’s online self is true to his real self without personal interaction. I agree with Turkle that an identity is always a projection and can constantly be reinvented. This is why when we see friends we have not met in years, they often act and look very different. Their projections of themselves are reshaped based on their experiences and Turkle argues that this ongoing construction of self happens unconsciously. The self is something we constantly work on, whether online or offline. Just like choosing a profile picture, the portrayal of our real self requires consideration too. This is shown through the outfits we select everyday.
By being able to constantly be online through your smartphone and post things related to yourself online (Instagram photos, Tweets etc), I think that the online self has the ability to become very real if one wants to constantly update stuff. However, the accuracy of the online self depends on how much the user wants to reveal.
Online identities are generally not validated by any means and it therefore brings about certain contentions because of people who chose to misuse the anatomy that online platforms provide. People are also skeptical of users who use online identities as an alter ego when they feel that they are being outcasted in society. With closer inspection, however, there are those who utilise these virtually created identities to seek solace or as a means to escape from the torments of real life. Regardless of the intention, there is an inherent danger when people start blurring the lines between reality and the virtual realm. There are cases where people end up killing themselves as they perceive themselves to be online characters. Therefore, I find cultures such as those which exist in Harajuku, Japan, good because they embrace the idea of bringing virtual identities to life. The activities that these groups of people engage in are also generally harmless. For many people, they might feel a sense of obligation to conform to societal norms and believes that they are not exactly very comfortable with. It becomes extremely difficult to exist in a society where inherent discrimination and stereotyping tend to stop people from being themselves. Perhaps this is why people are being increasingly engaged in their mobile phones and the miniaturisation of technology thus has allowed many of us to escape from social situations that we do not want to engage in.
To further elaborate my point on “comparison on doing something”, it means the comparison on the “level of governance” between the two different worlds.
The articles assigned for reading have covered extensively on the differences between the cyber space and reality and help bridge sociological issues between the two worlds.
Turkle mentioned the possibility to create multiple identities in the cyber space and one of the issues she mentioned was the ability to construct the ideal self in the cyber space – an element deprived in the reality of the online user. It then highlighted the similarity of “constructed ideal” in both the world. For instance, the “ideal guy” in both the cyber world and reality is one who stands at 1.8m tall, a sharp facial features with permed blonde hair would be classified as cute in both worlds. Next, Boyd highlighted the architecture of digital realm which focuses on the storage ability of the cyber space. “Nothing gets deleted in the internet” is a cliché which is very true. An example would scandals. Despite the local authorities stepping in to regulate scandals, news can still be found on the internet irregardless its timeframe. On top of it, there are social consequences which the victims have to live with and would explain the relationship between the two worlds. Nakamura’s article puts culture into the limelight, specifically, the use of racism to explain the defined culture in the both the virtual and reality. She has also argued that there was an informationalised capitalism involved in the gaming industry where the Chinese players’ were exploited to facilitate the in-game economy.
On top of the mentioned concepts mentioned in the assigned readings, there was also a comparison on doing something between the two worlds circulating in my mind. Government agencies and corporates have been attempting to regulate the internet but, in my opinion, it remains as an ambitious dream. For instance, the amount of effort required to change one’s identity is very much different in both worlds. An identity in the virtual world could be as easy as deleting and recreating another pseudo account as a replacement. However, it would be impossible for us to do in reality as we are all bounded by our biological makeup which is detectable by technology. If the internet were to be regulated as it would in reality – where there is indeed an identity tagged every individual – the virtual world would be part of the reality.
I feel that what Turkle and Boyd write in this week’s readings make a lot of sense. Boyd’s article centers on the need for designers of online spacers to inform users of the differences between online and physical structures, and assist them to help make their lives easier. If i’m not wrong, Boyd wrote her article in 2002. I believe that today, most people who frequently visit online spaces are already self-aware of its dangers and limitations. Hence, I feel that a more important agenda for now would be for designers of online architecture to minimize the dangers inherent in these spaces.
With greater development of technology comes greater risks associated with these technologies as well. For instance, credit card frauds and identity misusing are common in today’s world dominated by online spaces. It will be difficult to change people’s lives which revolve so highly around these things. Also, even if individuals take precautionary measures to prevent such incidents, they still happen. Therefore I feel that more should be invested in preventing these risks.
Turkle’s terming of online interactions as evocative, suggests how these interactions provide an experiential quality to users. This experiential quality is not merely based on observation, rather, users are able to feel and undergo effective encounters both internally (psychosocial) and externally (how the innate experiences translates to the external, physical self). Mentioned by Turkle, the virtual is seen in relation to the “physical” world, and human-instated boundaries to limit/separate the two “spaces” are deem to be misinformed.
Despite agreeing with Turkle that the virtual can be seen in relation to the “physical world”, is it possible to see relation in a different light? While we should not wholly differentiate the virtual from the physical, I feel that there are instances whereby what occurs online (the online persona) may not necessary occur offline (in the physical world).
I.e. An article showed cases of adults who were online cheating (via avatars on an internet game – Second life) giving up their real physical families to pursue their online relationship (taking it offline), only to realize that their online partners were different in real life. The affair did not eventually work out offline.
While online interactions have been termed by Turkle to be evocative, alternatively, the disinhibition (of one’s emotional guard) may have resulted in a different set of experience one could possibly undergo between the virtual and “real”.
In the context of the example given, the online persona one had portrayed to their online partners, may have been a portrayal of the “ideal” identity one wanted to have. Despite psychosocial process undergone (i.e. having the ideal identity and life online), upon meeting up with their online counterparts in real life, the explicit difference between how they are in real life (versus virtually) still acts as a physical boundary between the two worlds.
Thus, an alternative to understanding Turkle would be with the awareness and understanding that we may be viewing these two worlds at different perspectives (virtual – ideal), (physical – less ideal?). The common ground however, would be the social impact both virtual and physical realms have on us, thus should be still be seen in relation to each other.
We often build our lives around the social media such as facebook, instagram, twitter and what not. We upload photographs of ourselves, personal information and our personal interests.Indeed we are able to fashion an image of ourselves over the internet and in so construct identities. We carry these identities in our pockets accessible through our phones and we seem to identify more with them. However, we are NTU students not because facebook says so, but because our matriculation card proves it. Similarly, we are a citizen of Singapore because a card says we are. Therein lies the problem that online identities do not really seem to give us an identity, something that is concrete but instead gives us the ability to manipulate ourselves the way we want others to see us and even a self that we wish we could be.
The article by Nakamura is very interesting as the notion of race and ethnicity is being played within a realm of fictitious races made up of elves, orcs, undead and even pandas. The Chinese gold farmer is easily recognisable by who are adept at the game as they understand the physics and mechanics of that game world. For example, a long time WoW player would recognise a Chinese gold farmer behind the avatar by his/her robotic and repetitive actions, lack of communication and constantly being online (as multiple people play the same avatar). Thus Nakamura’s article refutes Boyd’s point of that identification is problematic in the online world as it lacks the physical assessment signals, such as skin colour.
In another perspective, Nakamura’s article also shows how the online world is not a separate realm from reality. In fact, the online world is merely a microcosm of the real world. The capitalist exploitation of low-wage workers in the real world is mirrored online. So while the low-working class are doing ‘work’ such as mining ores and killing low-levelled monsters in order to provide the real world upper class the virtual gold, armour and weapons for their adventures in the World of Warcraft universe.
This weeks reading reflect on the digital world and identity construction. Sherry Turkle´s writing Construction and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in MUDs from 1994 is an appraisal of the, still rather fresh innovation, of the “computer network known as the Internet” By giving three case studies, Turkle argues against the common idea that players loose themselves in the gaming, are negative and detached from reality. Instead, she claims that the role-playing in gaming communities can help individuals to work through personal problems and will help to construct one´s own identity. This is done on the basis that virtual spaces allow multiple identities, which are not limited to a certain appearance or gender. Moreover, virtual words make one reflect upon ethical and social issues. Consequently, Turkle makes the claim that “people are exploring, constructing, and reconstructing their identities” (p. 166).
Twenty years later, Turkle´s view of virtual words seems too positive. She speaks of them as if they are comparable to a psychological treatment. In my point of view, the Internet may be able to offer a new platform to create one´s social self and explore one´s identity, however their implications of the real world in regards to environmental changes as well as gender equality is rather questionable.
Opposed to that one finds in New Media Identities (2002) that there may be quite a lot of threats found in the digital realm. Here, the claim is made that a strict distinction between what the real and virtual reality is necessary in order for the user not to be mislead. Since the digital architecture is said to be deceptive, one needs to create more awareness in people. Even though for example Google may be able to give quick access, it also gives information that is fragmented and out of context. In regards to someone´s identity this means that every search engine is rather a threat to one´s identity than a contribution. Individiuals cannot control their own representation and are incapable of keeping track of which information of himself is circling around in the net. Then, virtual reality to a great extend alter one´s social structure because it influences the subject´s real life.
Similar to Turkle (1994), this text also points at the importance of identity construction on the Internet and highlights the importance of more awareness for managing one´s online presentation and identity. Looking at Facebook today, where future employers look at one´s profile in order to determine one´s career can only conform this necessity.
I found the article on “Reconsidering social interaction for the Digital Realm” very relatable. For example, it talks about how digitalisation has enabled information to exist in many different forms on all systems through which it has passed, rendering it archived and searchable. I thought about how search engines, like Google, have functions that enable people to retrieve information from its databases with a click of a button, regardless of when the material was produced. I also thought about how the information doesn’t get erased but is embedded within cyberspace indefinitely. Take for instance, the case of Anton Casey, who became infamous after posting scathing remarks about the poor on his Facebook account early in 2014. Despite deleting his account as well as that of his wife’s, his comments spread like wildfire from the social networking site, to online news sites like AsiaOne news, Straits Times online, and The Independent UK, and then finally to the local papers, proving that online activity is not as secure as many people believe. Additionally, the article talks about how digitalisation has enabled instant access to extensive information about others, but that the information may not always be credible or reliable. I supposed we can think about the site, Wikipedia, which is often regarded as a prominent information source, and rightly so, considering it has over 4 million articles in the English Wikipedia alone. However, the fact there there is no administration that determines who is or is not allowed to edit its pages, and that basically anyone with a computer and internet access is able to do so, suggests that we cannot always assume its validity.
Turkle writes about the MUD games, where gamers can role-play and immerse themselves in their different characters online. Essentially, she cites many examples on the different individuals who lead a double life, both online and offline. More often than not, these users may choose to re-create and invent character with a total different personality and project a different ‘self’- unidentifiable to their real offline selves.
Turkle emphasize that online identities are a projection detached from the real physical environment. Online users have the autonomy and mastery to control our projected selves. This is corroborated by Boyd’s article that the architecture of the internet allows a cloak of invisibility and anonymity to users, who would be able to post what they wish to online, behind their computer screens. The term “localization” refers to the managing of multiple different accounts based on different contexts. In MUD, people regularly explored their identity by assuming different online personas. Similarly, presentations of the ‘self’ online allow greater flexibility as an individual can choose to present a different aspect of them, rather than the one usually presented offline. The cloak of anonymity allows the revelation of particular aspects of the identity.
Taking a “selfie” and then posting it online, is a perfect example of online projection. Users often choose the best angle of their face, adding filters or use overlays of different application to edit and curate their photo. “Selfies” could be explained as a controlled and malleable projection of the ‘self’, at the discretion of the user. This self-presentation often allows the best and most positive image of our selves to be publicized online. In addition, the advent of social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook quantifies a person’s worth, via the number of likes for a particular selfie. The architecture of online spaces (Boyd) only allows the evaluation of a person through numerical data. This erroneous mode of evaluation is often inaccurate and not representative of an individual’s ability.
In this technologically oriented world, (multiple) online identities are commonplace. Thus, it comes as no surprise that identities are increasingly ‘commodified’ and online identities become a growing area of interest across the industry, as the value of user data becomes apparent. In the competitive world of advertising, user data is an important currency and companies do not give out user data freely. Up till recently, Yahoo has been exchanging user data by allowing consumers to log into Yahoo with their Google or Facebook credentials. “This reduces what tech types call “friction,” or the trouble creating a separate username and password to use Yahoo.”, meaning that Google and Facebook get access to Yahoo’s user database. Recent news about Yahoo has decided to stop sharing user data with Google and Facebook is an acknowledgement of the value of user data. Thus, user data has become the new ‘asset’ in society.
Both Danah Boyd’s article “Faceted Id/entity: Managing representation in a digital world” and Sherry Turkle’s article “Constructions and reconstructions of self in virtual reality: Playing in the MUDs” are fascinating to read as they seem to be on dichotomous end of a spectrum with regards to the view on how representation of self exists online. Boyd believes that there is one true representation of self, and that individuals are disingenuous in a way by creating multiple selves online that may be separate from the rest. On the other hand, Turkle appears to have a different view that there is no one true self. The self is itself a process of constant change. Even in the real world, an individual’s self can change over time due to circumstances, hence virtual spaces merely intensifies or speed up this progressive nature of self. I find myself agreeing more with Turkle’s view, in the sense that the representation of self is not fixed nor is it inherent in an individual in the real world. Instead, we find often that people do change over time. After all, isn’t this the idea of maturity?
This is not to disregard Boyd’s article as I find her discussion on the architecture of online spaces thought-provoking. She also talks a lot about providing context to fully comprehend a situation or individual. This ease of storage and retrieval of past information without sufficient context is an unfortunate danger of the online world now that is not fully appreciated. There is a frequent joke now that future presidential candidates will become more easily discredited as their posts or comments from their past will haunt them in the future. Thus, there is some real world implication to this idea, and we should be careful about our words online. However, this does not appear to be sufficient. It is then a dilemma on what can be done so that misrepresentation or manipulation of the truth does not occur. Perhaps, there will be a terminal point in time where individuals will be so absurdly misrepresented by their past postings that we will eventually disregard online remarks.