subscribe to this page
This article highlights the psychological implications of the change from traditional or face-to-face relationships to computer mediated relationships (CMR), especially focusing on the romantic contexts. At first I wasn’t sure how relevant this piece would be to social networks, but the way in which relationships, romantic or not, function on the Internet versus face-to-face illustrates interesting changes in the way people interact and form a conception of self. The article begins by pointing out the one salient characteristic in both kinds of relationships: people like relationships that give them rewards. Other than that similarity, the two types of relationships really are inherently different, for reasons that one would expect (the importance of spatiality, physicality, self-disclosure). The rest of the article is more instructional for psychologists who are treating patients that are orienting themselves in this new world of complex relationships, so it is not useful for this discussion. I found the discussion of face-to-face versus computer mediated relationships to be the most useful section of the article.
The article points out that the sequence of meeting someone is inverted on the Internet: it is not the physical that comes first, then attitudinal connection, then intimate disclosure, but the other way around. This model is challenged in interesting ways when applied to social networks of today, which create a fusion of CMRs and face-to-face relationships. A person might meet someone briefly, Facebook “friend” them, and then learn more about them online through their profile and chatting, only meeting again weeks afterwards. Ideally, face-to-face interaction will be complemented and enhanced by the addition of virtual relationships, which is the ultimate goal of social networking sites like facebook.com which rely on existing connections to establish a person’s network. However, it becomes more complicated when a person's creates expectations from a face-to-face meeting and is then disappointmented when he "meets" the person in the virtual world (or the other way around).
belongs to Social Networking Communities Online (e.g. Facebook) project
tagged computer_mediated_relationships online_dating psychology social_networks by rachee ...on 10-MAR-07
tagged computer_mediated_relationships online_dating psychology social_networks by rachee ...on 10-MAR-07
This essay focuses on people’s tendency to create alternate selves in cyberspace; the author calls them “virtual personae.” As she sees it, this act is reflective of the fact that the self is not unified (as Freud imagined it in the ego) but is actually fragmented and split (more of the Lacanian school). The author brings in psychoanalytic theory in order to present the lack of a unified self in a positive way. She posits that the internet (and social networks, online communities, chat rooms, Multi-User-Domains) is actually helpful in reconciling the many parts of the self and helping them develop. She argues that the internet age is not fragmenting the self, it has just concretized and illustrated this trend which was already happening. What she calls “the multiplicity and flexibility” of self is actually a liberating thing with the potential to help the self function healthily in a variety of circumstances. Sometimes these online personas can even help a person work through repressed parts of themselves. The author is careful not to be advocating a sort of multiple personality syndrome; she emphasizes that in order for the multiplicity to be productive, the individual must be very self-reflective and aware.
I found this article to be a refreshing change from some of the more cynical pieces I had read about identity and the internet. It’s encouraging to think that the fragmentation that people talk about in terms of online identity formation and multiple forms/representations of self could actually be a way to come to a greater realization of self. Rather than fragmented, it is optimistically “adaptive” and “flexible” (647). Of course this is not the case for all internet users who create virtual personae; some people could hide behind these identities rather than learn from them. In that way, the argument is a little bit idealist. Thinking about the author’s argument in terms of contemporary social networks online, there is definitely the possibility for defining oneself in a certain way on one’s profile and exploring other parts of the self in that process, but I think that especially with adolescents (much of the Facebook and MySpace demographic), they are often not ready to reconcile the multiplicity of selves and simply use the networks to project a certain image. It might take more time for them to self-consciously ask themselves why they are trying to create a certain virtual personae, and maybe then they will reach the potential that this article discusses.
I found this article to be a refreshing change from some of the more cynical pieces I had read about identity and the internet. It’s encouraging to think that the fragmentation that people talk about in terms of online identity formation and multiple forms/representations of self could actually be a way to come to a greater realization of self. Rather than fragmented, it is optimistically “adaptive” and “flexible” (647). Of course this is not the case for all internet users who create virtual personae; some people could hide behind these identities rather than learn from them. In that way, the argument is a little bit idealist. Thinking about the author’s argument in terms of contemporary social networks online, there is definitely the possibility for defining oneself in a certain way on one’s profile and exploring other parts of the self in that process, but I think that especially with adolescents (much of the Facebook and MySpace demographic), they are often not ready to reconcile the multiplicity of selves and simply use the networks to project a certain image. It might take more time for them to self-consciously ask themselves why they are trying to create a certain virtual personae, and maybe then they will reach the potential that this article discusses.
belongs to Social Networking Communities Online (e.g. Facebook) project
tagged identity_formation internet psychology social_networks virtual_persona by rachee ...on 10-MAR-07
tagged identity_formation internet psychology social_networks virtual_persona by rachee ...on 10-MAR-07