Re: New Theoretical Approaches to the Self in Cyber-Culture
From: "noci" <nochi@gmx.net> Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 00:05:03 +0100
the interesting questions there: is the "online self" different from the "real" self?
I think it's also important to ask what it means to have a 'real' self. In the physical world, i exhibit a wide variety of aspects of myself to a wide variety of people, given a particular context. The language, mannerisms, dress, and attitude i exhibit at work differs tremendously from that which i exhibit on a Saturday night at a NYC club. Are these two different selves or just different facets of my 'self'? I believe that we have a strong sense of self, even if particular characteristics can be conflicting and confusing (Saturday night behavior/beliefs versus church behavior/beliefs). We exhibit certain aspects of our self to certain people during certain interactions. This doesn't make our self any less real, just controlled (or 'performed') for a particular purpose, even if that purpose is simply fitting social norms. For example, while someone may be a mother, she probably will not speak to you in mommy-language at a business meeting, not because she's trying to hide her motherhood, but because the performance isn't socially appropriate. In the same way, i would suggest that online is just another context, with different norms and different ways of performing one's self. For example, in the physical world, we have to work with the characteristics of our self that are written on the body, while those are not readable online. Consequently, we pay much more attention to the qualities that are given through avatars, language or email/pseudonyms, trying to derive basic social information about the people out there (i.e. sex, age, location, values, etc.). Just as we hide/lie about certain personal characteristics in the physical world (how old are you, really?), we do the same online. Sometimes this is malicious; sometimes, it's purely entertaining; sometimes, it's unintentional. I guess i hesitate to think of the online sphere as tremendously different, just another context with slightly different rules/options. Please disagree with me because i am really interested in this conversation... danah
danah boyd wrote:
Please disagree with me because i am really interested in this conversation...
Wish I could oblige, danah, but I can't, at least as far as current cyber-reality is concerned. You've nicely summarized the approach to the self and its presentation that I've developed for myself (primarily from my reading of Goffman's _Presentation of self in everyday life_.) However, I do think, that the internet has, or seems about to, change our notions of the self in that it is going to enable us to create social selves that might be said to act on their own and yet might be argued to be a part of our self. It seems likely that computers will enable us to create web-resident or external-robotic agents that will interact with others at our bidding, and thus represent us, but based on programs for the conduct of social interaction that are not of each of our making. Our identity may, then, become defined at least in part by the actions of these agents, but problematically so. I suspect that followers of Bruno Latour might argue that this is already the case. Certainly, he argues very powerfully that certain technological phenomena (even as humble as a door butler) interact with us in a social fashion. However, I don't think that any of us feels that such interaction is going on when it occurs, nor do I think we think of door butlers and the like as representing someone, and thus holding their makers or users responsible for specific actions of these devices. On the other hand, robots and at least some kinds of web agents could easily engender a sense of social presence. Christian Nelson
the interesting questions there: is the "online self" different from the "real" self?
It might be also helpful to consider Higgins and Markus' work on possible selves: actual/ought to and/ ideal selves. Monica Whitty
participants (3)
-
Christian Nelson -
danah boyd -
Monica