TEL 555

Identity and Community

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Characteristics of identity in the new media age

 

·         Compound and collective

·         Flexible

·         Constructed

·         Global

 

Identity and Agricultural society

·         Work/function

·         Local limits

·         Religion/state

·         Stability and similarity

 

Identity and Industrial society

·         Work/function

·         Urban experience

·         Representation

·         Beginnings of consumerism

·         Individualism

 

Identity and Information society

·         Work/function reduction

·         Emphasis on consumption, style, attitude, etc…

·         Technology as extension of the Self

·         Mediation (replaces experience)

·         Crisis of Identity

o           Lack of representation (only mediation)

o           Breakdown of dominate cultural ideology (1960s) - shifting to mass consumerism and fragmentation (loss of group identity)

o           “Alienation presumes a central, unitary self . . . but if, as a postmodernist sees it, the self is decentered and multiple, the concept of alienation breaks down. All that is left is the anxiety of identity” (Turkle, Life on the Screen. 1995: 49).

o           For example: Micropolitics and political correctness

o           How do you get an authentic identity? Is it possible at all or is identity being undercut by the postmodern phenomenon?

 

 

Example MUD/MOO: Age of Throne

 

 

Turkle “Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs”

 

Computational technology

Traditional Role Playing

·         Psychologically constructive vs. destructive

 

Characteristics of MUDs

·         No boundaries/warping/endless

·         Extension/creation (remaking) of self

·         Fantasy projection

·         Shifting identity through anonymity, invisibility, and multiplicity

·         Creation of healing mechanisms

·         Technological emotion

 

Technology and experience

·         Gender swapping

·         Resolution of social problems through virtual discussions – MUD as more than gaming

 

Robots (bots), artificial intelligence and computational machines

 

Turkle’s current project on virtual pets

 

“You are what you pretend to be.”  “The very notion of the ‘true self’ is called into question.”  What is new identity?

 

 

Class slides on Cyber Communities (Optimized for Internet Explorer)

 

Jones “Information, Internet and Community: Notes Toward an Understanding of Community in the Information Age”

 

 

“CMC allows us to customize our social contacts from fragmented communities and to plan, organize, and make efficient our social contacts.” (p. 11)

·         CMC as a social function (not work)

·         Social contact and efficiency

CMC and community involves

·         Social structures

·         Social contexts

·         Space/mobility

·         Tools

 

Pseudo-community

 

Considering the fluidity of identity and the interface of CMC, are on-line communities better or worse than face-to-face communities?

 

 

Kollock and Smith “Communities in Cyberspace”

 

Identity

·         Determinants (assessment signals): account name/domain, signature, content, history, perspectives/opinions, stereotypical “behaviors”

Social order and Control

·         User defined and specific to group

Community structure and dynamics (see “characteristics” slide)

Collective action

 

 

Engardio, “Activists without Borders”

 

·         Internet as a tool to mobilize support, raise money, and exert influence

 

 

Cockburn, “The Circuit of Technology”

 

Construction of facts (science) and machines (technology) is a combined process

“Actor-network” model

·         People, tech, science, machines, etc… are in a complex network of interactions which impact society and technology

·         Translate information rather than transmit it

 

Technology is both hardware and a process (software)

 

Consider social relations of use and production

 

Gender identity and tech

·         Gender and tech are both relational and support “truth” – bias

·         “Good for a girl”

 

Power

·         Not real power, but relational to how much (an how many) people give up – basically capacity, it is manifested through domination

·         Resource allocation = capacity

·         Historically, women have been denied recourses

 

 

Cunningham, “Mortal Combat and Computer Game Girls”

 

Social history of in-home games

 

Cultural fears

·         Isolation

·         Anti-social behavior

·         Violence

·         Addiction

·         Moral panic as a scapegoat

 

Engendered gaming

·         Male designers

·         Male perspective

·         “Girl” games – Barbie shopping – many girls think it is stupid

·         Allows feminine violent expressions in a safe context

Public spaces and game try-outs: opening the power relations in gaming