P2 Vodcast:Internet me vs Real me

Team Name:

The Unidentified

Team Members:
Annabel Yoon: Research(Blog)
Bo-Mee Song: Research and Interviewer (Blog)Maria Rizvi: Chief Writer and editing, (Blog)Pearl Desa: Art, writing and editingTherese D'Souza: Filming and final editing(Blog).

The Internet, being multi-faceted and ever-changing, provides an unstable environment to our identity growth, thereby confusing us about who we really are. Our video dealt with this thesis by focusing on the confusion of identity and perception caused by the web. Our research was based on the looking glass self theory which states that a self-image is developed on the basis of the message we get from others, as we understand them. This theory states that “we imagine how we appear to others, we imagine their judgment of that appearance and we then develop some self-feeling, such as pride or mortification, as a result of our imagining others’ judgment”. Our main aim was to see how the web interfered with the development of individual identity. People act differently on the web as opposed to reality and their image is dependent on that behavior. Different sides of a person come out on the web as opposed to reality. Therefore the development of identity in this digital age is highly dependent on the web in various ways especially for the new generation who do the majority of their social networking on the web. The web is becoming a signifier of identity and self perception. The web is used as a technological tool to express the different sides of our personality and at times maybe even confuse them.

References:

1) Looking glass self theoryCooley, C. H. (1902). Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribner’s. Pp. 179-185.

2) Yoon, S. (2001). Culture, Computer Literacy, and the Media in Creating Public Attitudes toward CMC in Japan and Korea in Community informatics: shaping computer-mediated social relations (Eds.) Keeble, L. and Loader D. B. New York : Routledge, 2002