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Self and Identity in Cyberspace (MMOs, and Identity Online (Tamburrini,…
Self and Identity in Cyberspace
Newsgroups and Virtual Communities
USENET - Internet Newsgroups
Bulletin boards + discussion groups
Reid (1993)
Over 3 million users
Baym (1995)
studied rec.acts.tv.soaps - high daily traffic
Communicative adaptations: 'Emoticons' & abberviations
Norms, expectations, codes
Short cuts to facilitates communications
Can be group specific
Text based medium removing richness of face to face social interaction > emojis try to get this back
Hybrid language to fit technology > tailored to be as fast as possible
Turkle (2011)
Texting - not to close but not too far
Comfort in being in touch with a lot of people while keeping them at bay
Phone doesn't just support social life but shifts it
Adaptations in USENET
New forms of expressive communication> hybrid
Exploring new identities
Couldn't do without tech
Time to write, edit, and delete = room for performance. Real me = elusive
Tool for self presentation or shifting presentation?
Create online persona
Creating otherwise unlikely relationships
Traditional boundaries disappear
Otherwise imposible interactions
Creating Norms
Inventing new communities
Becoming neighbourly through online interactions > becoming meaningful
Erosion of face to face communities but existence of virtual community
MUDs
Building identity on-line
Names ('nicks') - impression management
Heisler & Crabill (2006)
Uncertainty Reduction Theory
Aversive unpleasant state to be in so strive to reduce this using any info available + attaching importance to it
Sample = 300 UGs in USA
Email address - self presentation
Assigned person sending an email a sex
56% assigned race, 65% age
Creative names
Informative therefore reducing uncertainty
More descriptive than plain names
Demographic and personality info often assumed (not always positive) from creative names
Personal trademark for people to judge
Myers (1987)
Tech changes so ability to manipulate identity improves
Uncertainty principle still present
Where you place the avatar in the space = connotations
Not always human
Tech adv. = new way to escape self
Even more than face to face
Reflect different aspects of identity
Multi-User Domains
How people play with identity
Own virtual world
Content of chat ~50% = offline things
Forming relationships within game enviro > meaningful
Manipulating identities interactive fantasy worlds
Relationships
Powerful relationships
Purely virtual relationships can be just as meaningful
Not "not real" just different environment
Characters & Identity
Bromberg (1996)
- new opportunities of exploring identity
Curtis (1992)
Wish fulfillment
Can be addicative
Power, status given to teens in identity crisis > offline world doesn't allow
Gergen (1991)
- the 'saturated self'
"True self"
Core inner true self (authentic) - not always aware/shown
More likely to be aware in online environment
Playing around with identity allows to arrive at understanding
Identify tourism
Exploring ways to present yourself
Opportunity for self development through identity play
Good or risk?
Loose sense of what we are the more we are spread across the internet?
Loosing clarity of self
Friends, Relationships, and CMC
Tinder and Infedility
18-25% of users in committed relationship (42% of UK users)
Online infidelity = emotional intimacy and sexual virtual contact
Just as harmful/hurtful
Girls - engagement in online sex chats/sexting = increase odds for reporting extra dyadic kissing
Boys = sexting increasing odds of poaching
Non-Single use for casual encounters
Decreased agreeableness, conscientiousness
Increased neuroticism and psychopathy
Dark triad = predictive of offline infidility, N + M predict using tinder for ego boost
Low A/N and High P/M correlate with sexual motive
CMC vs F-T-F Relationships
McKenna, Green & Gleason (2002)
Some of us are better at disclosing our 'true self' in CMC
More likley to take CMC relationships off-line and for them to last
UGs liked each other more after a CMC initial meeting, compared to f-t-f
Bargh, McKenna & Fitzsimmons (2002)
More self-disclosure online but cross cultural differences
"True self" = more accessible online?
Better at communicating true self in CMC?
More accurate impressions of us held by others?
Project concept of 'ideal other'?
Internet relationships can be seductive and develop quickly
Ellison, Heion & Gibbs (2006)
- Online Dating
Negative self-disclosure
Ps attended to subtle, almost minute cues in others' presentational messages
Mediated nature of initial interactions
Use of ideal self
Reality + idealised
Perceived themselves differently - want to be
Tension between desired self vs true self
Important in LGBTQ community - physical safe space not always possible, but online = safe
MMOs, and Identity Online
Yeet (2006)
50% of respondents worked full time, 30% married
Teen, middle age, professional, retirees
Average 22.72 hours/week
Emotional investment
27% most satisfying experience in last 7 days = ingame
33% most negative experience = ingame
Motivations
Males users = achievement/manipulation
Female = relationships, emersion, escapism
39.4% males + 53.3% females = MMO friends comparable/better than real life
MMO friends - bringing people together to succeed/solve problems
Seconds life as MMORPG
Online identities make them feel more like themselves
Moved from multi-tasking to multi-lifing
Steinkuehler & Williams (2006)
Virtual worlds rise, civic culture in offline world decreased
Spaces for social interaction/relationships beyond workplace/home
Capacity to function as third place for informal sociability and bridging social capacity
Combination of escapist fantasy and social realism
Anonymity of avatars - social engagement without obligations and repercussions > removing normal boundaries
Moratorium from everyday roles
Much game activity = chatter
Adolescent home pages:
Stern (2004)
FB
Editing own profile > self-esteem?
Objective self-awareness - aware = more critical of self
Hyperpersonal model - connect with self = positive impact
Attractiveness of people posting on wall effects how attractive you are perceived to be
Supprt for the social information processing theory
2001, 25% of US 12-17 year olds had home page
New opportunities for identity - discussion of self
Adolescents actively search for sense of self
Gender differences - substantive rather than stylistic
Downside?
Turkle (2011)
Networked - together but also alone
See others as objects to be accessed
Use individuals to gain specific information
Social media - represent ourselves in simplified ways
When faced with audience = pressure to conform
Tamburrini, Cinnirella, Jansen & Bryden (2015)
Intergroup dynamics - Twitter 'Tribes'
Word usage and proportion of messages sent within vs externally
Word usage and word endings
More a group = isolated, the more linguistic convergence
Speech accommodation in pursuit of social identity
Anonymity engendered in CMC enviro can enhance sig. of social identity context where relevant shared group of membership is salient to users
Linguistic differences echoes sociolinguistic work on situational fluctuations in linguistic registers
Complex features of online communication - specific usage to distinguish groups