Whilst for the most part I agree with the points that are made in my first article, one criticism I would add is that I think it is based on the assumption that offline personality and online personality are one in the same. However, as suggested by the work of Sherry Turkle, this is not necessarily the case as online we feel safe to carry out “identity play” where we try out personalities online which are extremely removed to our offline selves. This may be because of the safety which comes from the perception that interactions we have online aren’t as “real” as the ones we have offline, as they aren’t as tangible as a face to face conversation would be.
In arguing for the hypothesis that those who use the internet more will demonstrate a greater degree of satisfaction with their school lives, it suggests that those who have an extroverted personality offline will bring this to their online selves. However, there is little recognition of theories such as Turkle’s that suggest that the Internet provides a safe forum on which people can try out different personalities in the process of identity formation for adolescents. I would argue that an alternative way of looking at it would be to suggest that those who use the Internet to create a second personality for themselves which is a stark contrast to their offline selves may very well experience less satisfaction with their offline school life, as they may feel that the persona and life they have created for themselves online is far superior and more rewarding, perhaps if they have built up a network of online friends. These obviously are not able to be transferred to the individual’s offline life, which may create dissatisfaction to the offline live, and a favouring of the online one. I would suggest that this is evidenced in the case of Stewart I mentioned in a past blog.
Article: Liu, X. and Robert, L. (2008) “Does using the internet make people more satisfied with their lives? The Effects of the Internet on College Students’ School Life Satisfaction” CyberPsychology & Behaviour, Vol. 11 (Issue 3), p310-320
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I'm not convinced that many people currently using the Inet do 'identity play' (in my research of personal website authors I have looked at thousands of sites and I'm pretty sure that two of these were 'masquerading'. Even then, they were emphasising an aspect of their 'self' that existed offline, but wasn't able to be expressed.
ReplyDeleteRemember, "early adopters aren't normal"