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Friday, 30. August 2002
Identity and the Internet as Disruptive Technology

I recently read a couple of books about the Internet, cyberculture and identity especially by Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen. This book is good because it demonstrates an aspect of the Internet life as disruptive. When I read the book, on my way to Kuching to organize an event for my workplace last month, I felt unease. Internet, not all of its technology of course, is disruptive in the sense that it gives opportunities for a user to construct and deconstruct his or her identity. Turkle's research on users of multi-user domains (or MUDs) showed some evidence of 'gender-switching' or 'cross-dressing', for example, as particularly normal. Imagine if 'gender-switching' occurs to teenagers, and the experience might have left an imprint on their life or their identity. And that what is disruptive is the fact that 'simulated identity' is brought to RL or real life. Nonetheless, in other studies, such as by Lynne Roberts and Malcolm Parks (as treated in Green and Adam, Virtual Gender), there is enough evidence that 'gender-switching' at least only occurs among the minority of MUDs users, and not the majority. However, the fact that what is considered 'abnormal' in RL appears to be 'normal' in cyberspace points to the direction that the Internet, as in other human/machine interaction, is a disruptive technology.

 
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