Clever Girl... >> Writing >> Hansonline The ways in which we understand our identity (defined within this essay as the way in which a person or group is perceived, both by his/her/themself and by others) have been increasingly affected by the electronic mass media since its rapid expansion in the late 1960s.  Just as television and advertising of the 1960s and 1970s brought matters once seen as personal (eg the rights and status of women, homosexuals and indigenous people) into the public arena, leading to widespread changes in the identity of these groups, the new technologies of the 1990s and early 21st century, specifically the Internet, have provided those who use them with new ways of defining themselves.  Users of the Internet are not mere consumers of media content, but creators as well - they produce the websites, write the emails, and type the messages they read upon their screens.  This results in the computer becoming an extension of the self, while at the same time providing opportunities for reinvention of the self.  Sherry Turkle, who has spent much of her career studying the psychological impact of technology, has written in depth about the ways computers and the Internet have affected the identities of those who use them.  I intend to outline Turkle's findings (many of which were discovered via interviews with users of MUDs, or Multi-User Domains/Dungeons) and compare them to the experiences of the users of the Hansonline Official Message Boards (an extremely active group of forums which usually processes thousands of 'posts' each day), 22 of whom I interviewed via the Internet for this essay. Observations of Internet usage have contributed to the postmodern belief that identity is not unitary, as once thought, but multiple.  The philosopher Daniel Dennett described the "flexible self" in his multiple drafts theory, which saw every aspect of a person's character as equal, with no one aspect the true self.  Like the MUD users Turkle interviewed, many of whom used different handles to discuss different topics or play different roles, we experience our physical lives and identities as "a series of roles that can be mixed and matched, whose diverse demands need to be negotiated."  However, unlike Doug, a Midwestern college junior and MUD user interviewed by Turkle, who plays four different character across three different MUDs - a seductive woman, macho type, rabbit, and sexual tourist, in real life we perform these roles while remaining the one person.  The multiple identities are connected rather than disparate.  Maryjane, a user of the Hansonline Official Message Boards (henceforth referred to as 'HOMB') says that while she may behave in a number of different ways online ("I can take a supercilious tone with true teenies who invade my territory, a solicitious tone with my near and dear, playful tone most of the time... bossy tone... and... a totally bitchy tne"), she remains "the me I recognise" and, like in real life, she performs these roles under the same screename, perhaps the HOMB equivalent of a physical body. The text based nature of both MUDs and the HOMB means that users are judged solely on the content of what they say rather than the more appearance-based criteria often applied in real life.  Turkle believes that this freedom from the burdens of physicality means that users are able to become the author of not only their text, but of themselves, bringing to life the adage: "you are who you pretend to be".  As Julie, who uses the HOMB approximately 5-7 days a week for up to 10 hours a time, put it: "I behave differently for the simple fact that nobody ever really knows who's on the other side of the computer screen.  So you can be anyone you want and nobody would ever know the real you".  As a result of this, while people may think they are playing themselves while using the Internet, they are often playing the person they would like to be instead.  Anni, 16, said the anonymity of the board, along with the common bond she felt with the other users, made her "feel free to be myself.  And let the real Anni shine through.  In real life that rarely, if ever, happens".  Monica, 17, said she felt she expressed herself better in writing and, as a result "I tend to sound more sure of myself... You can see a major difference between little unsure Monica in the outside world, and 'ol' SoWhat' on the hansonforums". My own online experiences also support the idea that people become who they would like be to when on the Internet.  My first website, a collection of stories and editorials I had written, was written entirely in the persona of the female protagonist of one of my stories, Michaela Morgan - the classic girl-next-door heroine, or me-as-I-would-like-to-be.  While at the beginning of my book Michaela and I had distinct, if similar, personalities, over time her character began to possess many of my idiosyncracies, and as a result of playing her role even in my editorials, I began to behave more like her.  My two personas merged, in a sense, so that she became a more realistic character, and I came closer to my ideal. Turkle found that the multiplicity of identity evident in MUDs, bulletin boards, and Internet chatrooms often manifested intself in the form of multiple screenames, each handle representing a different persona played by the person behind the computer.  One bulletin board user noted that people "start to resemble little corportations, 'Logins R Us,' and like any company, we each have within us the bean-counter, the visionary, the heart-throb, the fundamentalist, and the wild child.  Long may they wave". While the use of multiple handles to signify different sides of a user's personality is most visible in role-play games, several (although by no means all) of the HOMB users I interviewed reported feeling different when using different screenames in regular chat.  Georgia, 15, uses different handles depending on the mood she's in, explaining it with: "I usually use the 'TheDarkSide' one when I'm mad or moody and stuff... I suppose it's because I don't want to 'stigmatise' 'ThatRedShirt' as beign mean".  Laura, 22, reported feeling differently depending on the handle she uses: "I've tried a couple of different sns but I've always gone back to 'she.said' because I am most like myself with that name... for some reason.  I also like her the best." Different personas are even more pronounced during roleplaying, as Monica reported: "When I roleplay 'Chip'n'dip', I get to be as sarcastic as I want without worrying about being me.  The same with 'Monica MtLion' - she's more bright and intelligent than I really am... not to mention a lot more sexy/sexual/provocative than I am."  However Ryan, 19, maintains that he remains himself online, even during roleplaying: "The fact that I remain myself makes it more about expressing my persona, rather than exploring myself.  I'm already content with what I know about myself, I want to know what other people know about me.  I want to know their reactions to what I say and do... that's what makes it fun.  Assuming an entirely new character has little appeal." However, despite the feeling that different handles allow them to become completely different people, it is unlikely that any of the HOMB users have online personas that are markedly disparate from any facet of theri personalities.  Turkle found that many people who create an artificial persona that differs greatly from their real life personality experience difficulty in maintaining it, both because of the energy required and the desire to reveal themselves to those they care about.  HOMB user Caitlyn, 17, experienced this dilemma when she attempted to create a persona who was her exact antithesis, 'StephHATEShanson'.  She explained it thus: "It was actually incredibly hard work trying to mispell every word possible, and it got boring very quickly... I couldn't think of anything for Steph to say - apart from how wonderful she was and how much she hated everyone.  She didn't have much substance." One phenomenon noted both by Turkle and other writes such as Mark Dery and Gareth Branwyn is the tendency for people to unleash the dark side of their idenitity while online.  It is no coincidence that there is such a high levle of sexual harassment in cyberspace, a place which both provides anonymity and is free from the usual physical repercussions of one's actions.  Ryan admitted (albeit tounge-in-cheek): "I'm a little meaner online... most likely because of the lack of any physcial consequences of beign mean... these people aren't in any way involved in my (physical) life and subsequently their feelings/reactions are unimportant".  Christine, 15, added: "I think a lot of people [on HOMB] may act 'tougher' and say a lot of things they normally wouldn't say in real life because they think it's 'just the computer' and don't realise there are real people on the other end of their computer screen".  Jung believed that it was actually beneficial and liberating for us to get in touch with our dakr side, and since cyberspace is a place where it is near impossible to inflict any physical harm and the ability to 'switch off' at any time makes psychological harm more difficult, it might be the best place for us to do so. Turkle believes that Internet usage can provide teenagers and people in general with what psychoanalyst Erik Erikson called a "psychosocial moratorim", citing Robert, a young man who used MUDs intensively throughout his freshman year of college to learn to talk about himself in measured doses, rather than not at all, as an example.  The term "psychosocial moratorium" refers to a 'time out' from the consequences of passionate feelings and experimentation, and was a crucial part of Erikson's theories about adolescent idenity development.  Cyberspace can function as an always-available holiday or moratoria, allowing both adolescents and adults the opportunity to enter another reality and simultaneously "develop new dimensions of self-mastery", or identity. (Present-day Rachel's note: There's a time and place for everything.  It's called college. - Southpark) The work of Sherry Turkle has shown that the increasingly widespread use of Internet chatrooms, bulletin boards and MUDs had led to new ways of understanding the self.  There is an increasing tendency for people to view themselves as having not one unitary self, but a multiplicity of identities depending both on their mood and situational context.  At the same time it is becoming increasingly possible for someone to completely change their identity at any stage of their lives - including the physical manifestations of that identity.  Whether the multiplicity of identity is becoming more common because of Internet use, or simply more apparent, is not certain, but there is no doubt that the changing face of idenity is well demonstrated by the study of the new electronic media. What on earth is this bitch talking about? back

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