self and technology, moving targets
In 2005 people strive to be themselves online. Last millennium studies of role-playing and false identities in a detached cyberspace captured Internet life and users according to a context of reduced cues, bandwidth and number of users (and who users tended to be). Technology, users and ways of using communication technology have changed considerably. Online communication is mundane and part of ordinary everyday practices. Online self equals offline self - increased confidence and self-disclosure online does not change that. These claims are rather ordinary and the same as a number of studies, including my own, seem to indicate. As well as common sense, I guess. Role-playing and deliberately false presentations of self are still part of online life, but they are hardly dominating the scene.
I was going to criticize Rafaeli, Raban and Kalman 2005, but reading their work a little closer, I realise I'm not really going to. Initially I found it peculiar that they refer to studies of the self online that mainly concern fluid and false presentations of selves (in "Social cognition online" in Amichay-Hamburger (ed.) The social net. Human behavior in cyberspace - would you include 'cyberspace' in a book published in 2005?). This implies that their discussion of social cognition (i.e. "the sum of our perceptions of ourselves and others") online captures what probably was a pertinent description, but which is not the current state of affairs. They are however, critical to these studies, and they explicitly emphasize that the use and users of technology have changed. Hence I'm withdrawing my critique. But why are they not referring to how things have changed?
How do you research a moving target such as the constant appropriation of digital technologies? I guess my research results will be very dated a few years from now. Oh well, I'm satisfied as long as I'm able to analyse what is now.
7 Comments:
You're probably right. Is it really possible to observe such a changing object? I don't feel so sure about it. that's why I think it's so importanto to work on general concepts/theories. Probably lot of works done during these years will be dated in few years, especially if we are fashinated by some "cool" concepts (like it was cyberspace some year ago). But if you work on "constants" your work is going to stay. I guess that's the difference between descibing something and elaborate a theory about something. (obviously you can't set up a theory every week... but you can use them)
Fabulous post! I've found with younger kids (10-16) that they are not just being themselves, but that they are exaggerating aspects of themselves: exaggerated femininity and masculinity for example.
Clearly a solid theoretical foundation is very necessary for this kind of research. Though I generally prefer theories that are not too aloof.
Anya, one of my favourite citations from the interviews I've conducted: …) it’s all me, but it’s small parts of me. Maybe it’s the parts I’m more satisfied with that I write more about" (Linnea, 18). Interviewing can be so cool.
you're dead right. it will all age, but there's nothing terrible about that. i *am* interesting in this shift though, between the wanting to be others and now wanting to be yourself. or, is it more a case of having to *prove* you're you, in terms of increased copyright protection, safety and online identifications?
Theories are aloof as much as the object you are observing with that teories. We've done some good research about how mass media manage health-related problems (it was SARS time) using as theoretical framwork Luhmann's Mass Media System and Semantic Of Society concept.
I have positive feeling about the moving technology in the recent years , they are making development so our life become much easier and quick. But at the same time I also think with this moving technology there need to be restriction in the thinking of developers.
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