Webliography Responses

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Hourann's webliography

Question 3: Critically assess the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies.

Through history, the development of new technologies has often led to redefinitions of the ways in which identity is constructed. Computing technologies are no exception, given their significant differences to older forms of communication. Early ideas of how communicating with computers changes identity were somewhat utopian (e.g. ‘gender is irrelevant’) but these have been thoroughly disproved, leaving open the question of just what changes do occur.

To examine this, I tried several searches on Google, finding resources such as Frank Schaap’s list of links on identity and technology, which is slightly dated but still very useful. This gave a very broad (and complex) range of articles, so I will focus solely on the Internet and related technologies.

One of the most significant ways in which the construction of identity does get altered is due to the easily changeable nature of identity in online spaces. Users can never really be sure that the people they’re interacting with actually are who they claim to be, leading to paranoia about what people’s ‘real identities’ are in online spaces.

Judith Donath’s 1998 article discusses this paranoia and its causes. Focussing on Usenet, she discusses (in some detail) several examples of real interactions, analysing their implications for the presentation of identity. Her work reflects the anxiety of late-90s Internet users who were fearful of ‘true’ identity becoming obscured (or completely lost) online, and is therefore useful for showing just how significant the construction of identity is to everyday communication.

Meanwhile, Stalder’s article provides a thorough discussion of identity while also exploring this paranoia. Stalder describes ways in which identity is constructed in general, then examines how those apply to online environments, providing a valuable background to issues of identity in these contexts. His focus, though, is very general (and often on identification rather than identity); it is necessary to look elsewhere for specifics.

The article by Daniel Chandler is old enough that it discusses ‘personal home pages’ as a new phenomenon (well before the advent of blogging), but it still draws useful insights into how identity can be constructed in this context. Chandler notes the way in which home pages make the inherently private world of someone’s personal life a matter for the public sphere, by disseminating it to the world. The article points out the relative ease of changing a home page, and notes how this is related to the dynamic nature of constructing identity. It is somewhat more descriptive than it is analytical, though, so it is useful primarily as a source of basic ideas and definitions.

Arnold and Miller’s later article, although still focussing on ‘personal home pages’, provides a more analytical perspective. It considers gender rather than the broader notion of identity used by Chandler, and highlights some of the differences between how men and women present themselves on Web pages. This, they point out, is in response to social and cultural structures, such as the tendency for female academics to not be taken as seriously as their male colleagues. Their essay, then, provides a strong indication of how the power structures of the offline world can readily translate to the online.

Deanna Weber’s article also focuses on gender as part of identity. Weber briefly refers to her own experiences in interacting with other people online, but deals mainly with theory and abstract examples. She also surveys a broad range of relevant texts, bringing up a range of useful quotes and important ideas. Weber reiterates the significance that people attach to gender when communicating; for instance, someone who uses a non-gendered name and profile to identify themselves will still be confronted by questions like ‘a/s/l?’. She then begins a detailed analysis of gender subjectivity, arguing that the different nature of identity construction online is a potential platform for social change.

This said, gender is not the only aspect of identity being constructed online. This is shown by the article on the online community New Zealand Edge, which explores cultural identity alongside issues of race and ethnicity. The authors point out that people often feel a need to ‘belong’, and will actively seek out community whether the context is online or off. Their sociological study reveals how many of the factors that make up cultural identity in the ‘real world’ are still present in the online community, but the techniques of construction used in the online space are significantly different. For instance, the Internet allows for community to be formed by any communication, rather than geographical positioning, but this can still produce the strong sentiments of belonging that accompany offline communities. In this case, then, the new technology disrupts the process (but not the outcome) of constructing identity.

Like the study of New Zealanders, Loong Wong’s article also deals with the idea of ‘belonging’ as part of the construction of cultural identity. Wong describes how the Chinese diaspora have created communities online, much like those built offline, but argues that these can sometimes homogenise the identities of subtly different groups. This stands in contrast to early utopian ideas that the Internet gives an open voice to everyone, and shows how online environments can alter even the problems of constructing identity.

Finally, Frank Biocca’s essay offers a much more radical perspective on the ways in which new communication technologies alter the process of identity construction. He argues that the integration of the Internet into our everyday lives alters our identities by transforming our bodies, making us more like cyborgs every day. Biocca points out that the body is involved somehow in all forms of communication, and hence is also an important part of how we construct identity. If his claim about embodiment changing in response to the changes of online communication is true, then it seems certain that the growth of the Internet will lead to identity becoming ever more fluid in all aspects of life.

To conclude, it is clear that Internet technologies bring about significant changes in the construction of identity, particularly by making it a much more fluid and less certain process. Nonetheless, important aspects of identity from the offline world continue to play a role, such as gendered power relations.

Given that the question is so broad, a list of references as short as this can never be more than a very brief overview. I have tried to survey a broad range of aspects of identity, while also looking at how opinions towards the construction of identity have shifted over time. This reveals important disagreements in how identity is constructed online, while also highlighting the many similarities to identity offline.

References

Arnold, Jill; and Miller, Hugh. “Gender and Web Home Pages”. March 1999. [accessed 01/09/2004]

Biocca, Frank. “The Cyborg's Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments”.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, volume 3 issue 2, September 1997. [accessed 30/08/2004]

Donath, Judith. “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community”. June 1998. [accessed 30/08/2004]

Chandler, Daniel. “Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web”. August 1998. [accessed 30/08/2004]

Schaap, Frank. “Cyberculture, Identity and Gender Resources”. March 2003. [accessed 30/08/2004]

Stalder, Felix. “Digital Identities – Patterns in Information Flows”. July 2000. [accessed 01/09/2004]

Tripp, Anna; Williams, Jocelyn; and Jacobs, Glenda. “A picture of New Zealand community and cultural identity in cyberspace”. December 2003. [accessed 01/09/2004]

Weber, Deanna. “Subjectivity and Gender-Identity in Cyberspace”. The Laughing Medusa, Spring 2001. [accessed 02/09/2004]

Wong Loong. “Belonging and diaspora: The Chinese and the Internet”.
First Monday, volume 8 issue 4, April 2003. [accessed 31/08/2004]