Sherry Turkle, author of the article “Cyberspace and Identity”, explains in her article that true identity is found through multiple personas and the internet helps the individual act out these personas which leads to self-actualization, in which every need is met and fulfilled. Whereas, Jeffery Rosen, author of the article and book “The Naked Crowd”, contends that the identity of the individual is being lost in the Omnipticon, where the many are watching the many, of the crowd. Rosen asserts that the internet is only speeding up the individual’s loss of identity. Furthermore, Turkle and Rosen explain that the internet is used to express identity, Turkle emphasizes a high reward for using the internet to reach self-actualization through online personas while Rosen focuses on the high risks of using the internet to promote ones identity, its potential damage to your personal image.
Turkle’s definition of identity blends with the real and virtual self and finds that the line separating the virtual and “real life” identities have blurred with the increased use of the computer in our daily lives. The real life has become engrossed in the virtual world of computers, the multiple windows of the computer screen becoming the multiple roles or personas that we embody on a daily basis. Turkle clarifies “that today’s life on the screen dramatizes and concretizes a range of cultural trends that encourage us to think of identity in terms of multiplicity and flexibility.” (Turkle)
With the blending of the real and virtual worlds our identity is personified as having multiple dimensions and depth that can be seen through our use of the internet to help define ourselves. By using the internet’s virtual reality there is a high reward of exploring ...
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... one can explore and expand the individual’s identity. While, Jeffery Rosen’s The Naked Crowd depicts a high risk situation in using the internet to express one’s individuality and identity with the ever present criticisms of the public. The internet is both a place of high reward and high risk, users must be wary that the stranger on the other side of the screen, is just a stranger and knows nothing of the individuals struggles, cyberspace also provides an opportunity to explore the individual or identity. The internet is a tool and like every other tool it is in the way we use it that determines the risks and rewards.
Works Cited
Rosen, Jeffery. "The Naked Crowd." Readings for Analytical Writing. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2011. 411-424.
Turkle, Sherry. "Cyberspace and Identity." Readings for Analytical Writing. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2011. 466-474.
Over the years people have all safeguarded their personal identities for the risks of emotional pain that others can cause, the recent use of the online identity being another fortification to this protection. However this has lead people to confuse which identity is their personal one and which is their online one, because of the development of taking technology with you. This can harm one’s relationships with close friends and family that sometimes get confused for the others. With the consequences of bring aspects of online identity into personal identities, many people find it hard to maintain the boundaries of these two. The first step is to understand the problem so one can better see how each identity can fix into its place and still be able to protect them from any positional emotional scarring.
Have you ever thought about how technology is controlling your life? Then you should read Sherry Turkle’s “Growing Up Tethered”, and how her perspective on how technology and online interactions influence identity construction. “Growing up Tethered”, is a piece from her book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, and in this essay, Mrs. Turkle identifies and examines the adolescents growing up tethered to the wide force of technology that has come to characterize society. In more detail “growing up tethered” is stating that today’s adolescents are connected to peer pressure and in most cast parent surveillance. Turkle believes that teens must always be available to their friends and that they need a phone
Turkle, Sherry. “How Computers Change the Way We Think”. The Bedford Guide for College Writers, with Reader, Research Manual, and Handbook. 9th ed. Eds. X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Marcia F. Muth. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 602-608. Print.
In the world there are around 7 billion people. Each one of these people has characteristics of who they are that are unique to them. In turn, the way we see our peers, and people we interact and communicate with is unique to us. Every moment, each person on earth performs an identity. In Human Communication in Society by Jess K. Alberts, Thomas K. Nakayama and Judith N Martin (2016), identity is defined as “…individual and social categories a person identifies with, as well as the categories that others identify with that person.” (p. 47) During an average day we preform many identities at once. Without these identities, 7 billion people would be carbon copies of each other. Communication with others and identity are symbiotic. As humans we derive meaning for the world around us through “…social or symbolic, interaction.” (Alberts, Nakayama, Martin, 2016, p. 50) In the modern age we live, some of our most prevalent forms of communication, are through media. Media will always shape our identities, as we are constantly surrounded by it.
Turkle (1995) argues that without coherence, the identity spins off in all directions and that multiplicity can exist only between personalities that can communicate among themselves. Steven G. (1998) states the fragmentation of the individual obstructs the development of the resilent online identity. Ultimately, one can create multiple versions of oneself; different versions of identity can be altered to particular audience. Nonetheless, for most young people these fragmentary social faces are merged into an emotional sense of a single identity. One is able to express more online than one says offline. Thus, hostile exchanges can be found erupting online, then one can abandon that difficult position by abandoning the identity through which it was projected.
Turkle’s stance on this topic is emotionally engaging as she uses rhetoric in a very powerful approach, while also remaining unbiased. The article flows very smoothly in a beautifully structured format. The author maintains a composition that would appeal to the interest of any sort of audience. She effectively questions the reader’s views on the negative consequences technology has on social interactions. Her work is inspiring, it sheds light on the dark hole society has dug for themselves, a state of isolation through communication in the digital age; this is a wake up
Misrepresenting ourselves and other individuals publicly through the utilization of social media goes against Mary Shelley’s morals in relation to the invasion of technology into modern life. Social media can become monstrous when an individual’s identity is misinterpreted through social networks. By definition, social media refers to “forms of electronic communications . . . through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)” (Merriam-Webster).
"Finding One's Own in Cyberspace." Composing Cyberspace. Richard Holeton. United States: McGraw-Hill, 1998. 171-178. SafeSurf. Press Release.
Before the internet, our characteristics such as style, identity, and values were primarily exposed by our materialistic properties which psychologists define as the extended self. But people’s inferences to the idea of online self vs. offline self insisted a translation to these signals into a personality profile. In today’s generation, many of our dear possessions have been demolished. Psychologist Russell W belk suggest that: “until we choose to call them forth, our information, communications, photos, videos, music, and more are now largely invisible and immaterial.” Yet in terms of psychology there is no difference between the meaning of our “online selves” and “offline selves. They both assist us in expressing important parts of our identity to others and provide the key elements of our online reputation. Numerous scientific research has emphasized the mobility of our analogue selves to the online world. The consistent themes to these studies is, even though the internet may have possibly created an escape from everyday life, it is in some ways impersonating
To begin with, we technically are not born with identity; it is a socially constructed attribute. Identity is a transient thing, which changes over time as we grow and mature. The self-concept, which is our own personal understanding of who we are, combines with self awareness to cultivate a cognitive representation of the self, called identity (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2010, p.118). In other words, who we are is controlled by internal and external factors that combine to make us who we become. Bring new media outlets into the equation, such as the internet, and media is now regarded as an "extension of everyday life and a tool of cultural change" (Singh, 2010). Thus, identity formation, as a social concept, is being transformed in new and even more global ways.
The world of technology is ever so changing. It has grown to where we have created different realities, both mental and visual. Psychologically speaking, we’ve created worlds and scenarios in which we are “ourselves” are another person and with the introduction and growth of this new technology, we allow for a greater escape from reality. We create new worlds, and/or a new being on the screen that we cannot be certain about something because what we see can be what we think it is. However, the consequences of spending the day in from of the screen are just as difficult to deal with as real life it becomes almost redundant to escape. Although it may seem fun and freeing to be able to have your own persona on a screen, the consequences of spending
Multiple identities have been increased by the creation of cyberspace communications according to "Cyberspace and Identity" by Sherry Turkle. Turkle uses four main points to establish this argument. Her first point is that online identity is a textual construction. Secondly she states that online identity is a consequence-free moratorium. Turkle's third point is online identity expands real identity. Finally, her last point states that online identity illustrates a cultural concept of multiplicity. I disagree with many aspects of her argument and I have found flaws in her argument. Technology is an area that does not stand still and consequently outpaced Turkle's argument.
“All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely player… ” (2.7.146-47). Shakespeare’s poem pointed out everyone is only actors on the stage of this world. Goffman (1959) has a similar theory with Shakespeare that everyone is a performance; at any given moment, we play different roles. Through social media, everyone can carefully select what role that we want to project on virtual sphere.I argue that my identity changed varies different platform. In this essay, I discovered who am I online, what roles I was playing and how did I manage the impression I crave to give others on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Line.
The influence of rapidly growing social media, television, and the internet has taken the world by storm in recent years. Its fascinating development over the years is nothing short of remarkable when you take into account that 20 years ago, only 16 million people in the world were "online", compared to the 2 billion that roam on the internet now. Modern communications technology has now become so familiar and utterly banal, yet there is still this tingling sensation when one receives a text from a love interest on Facebook or WhatsApp. Human identity, the idea that defines each and every one of us, is on the verge of being radically defined by social media. This essay will provide a balanced outlook on the positive and negative effects that social media have had on the behaviour and thinking on humans. The topic is a very controversial one, but the purpose of this is to help readers formulate a view on whether the arguments in this essay benefit society in general, or whether they harm the well-being of the human brain and detach us from reality.
Mccarty, K. M. 2012. Examination of How One's Perceived Online Identity on Social Media Affects One's Perceived Real-Life Identity.