Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet

Chapter 7

The material below represents notes compiled by Robert Keel and Takako Nomi in their reading of Turkle's, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, Simon and Schuster, 1995.. They are intended for classroom use.

Aspects of the Self

Identity and View on the Self in Virtual Reality

The Self as a social construction : In virtual reality, how the self is constructed/reconstructed?

Keys: Multiplicity, Heterogeneity, Flexibility, and Fragmentation

Virtual reality : MUDs

Environments: Text style virtual reality

1. The construction of virtual worlds by players -- the creation of one's own objects and architecture. (Not rule driven but bottom-up)
2. Anonymous social interactions

Players and their presentation of the self

• Personae -- the creation of characters by players through interactions with other players
• The construction of personae and the creation of Identities -- close to or away from the self in the real world
• "You don't have to worry about alot other people put you in as much. It's easier to change the way people perceive you, because all they've got is what you show them. They don't look at your body and make assumptions."
• The expression of unexplored parts of themselves -- "I feel more like my true self in Muds"

Identity play in cyberspase and psychological questions asked by the author

• "If a persona in a role-playing games drops defenses that the player in real life has been unable to abandon, what effect does this have?"
• "What if a persona enjoys success in some area that the player has not been able to achieve?"

Role Play Games

Are they psychologically constructive, or destructive/dangerous?

The experiences of Julee in face-to-face role play games

• A role of a mother in the game -- the projection of feelings about her real mother. Shaping her persona to reflect her own deep wish for a relationship with her mother.
• The game as a medium for working with the materials of her life -- use of the game to engage in the most important issues in her life and to reach new solutions
• Constructive experiences -- Psychoanalytic tradition of so called "Working Through"

Role Playing in Muds Fuzzier boundaries between the game and the real life -- Possibilities to "move into" important personal issues (rather than "Work on" them as Julee does); "... trying to express the degree to which they feel part of its space" "Slippage" -- Blur between a personae and the real self New opportunities and risks for development of identity and self

Experiences of Gordon

• In his real life -- unhappiness and nowhere to fit in.
• In Muds, the Creation of a new character -- "Born again" Various selves/multiple personae, which have qualities that he is trying to develop in himself.
• The continuous process of creation and recreation of personae -- his sense of his self is a work in progress

Experiences of Matthew

• Playing a role of an idealized father
• Muds offers parallel lives in ongoing worlds -- a way of thinking in which life is made up of many windows, and RL (real life) is only one of them.
• (Unlike Julee's case who works though real-life issues in a game space -- the clear distinctions between a game and real life)
• Muds -- Blur boundaries between self and game, self and role, self and simulation. "You are what you pretend to be. You are what you play"

Experiences of Stewart (known as Achilles in Mud)

• He feels constrained in his real life (health problems, shyness, and social isolation etc.)
• He wants to feel that his Muds life is a part of his real life, insisting that he does not role play but that Muds simply allow him to be a better version of himself
• He plays his ideal self in Muds
• He tries hard to make his Mud self (Achilles) part of his real life. But he says he failed. "I'm not social, don't like parties, and can't talk to people about my problems"
• He feels sick and addicted to Mud

Interplay of Technology and our mental process

Complex psychological effects

A question : Whether computers can be used as psychotherapy Psychotherapy -- positive innerchages " It is by not stirring things up at the level of outward action that we are able to impulse for action and to encourage and examination of the meaning of the impulse itself.

MUDs -- Positive and Negative aspects of Muds for psychological growth "Working though" v. "act out"

Working thorough -- "involves a moratorium on action in order to think about our habitual reaction in a new way"

Act out --"stages old conflicts in new settings. People reenact our past in fruitless repetition"

New opportunities and new risks (e.g. Stewart's case)

Constructive use -- chances for positive changes, and destructive use -- unproductive repetitions Muds as psychotherapy -- it can be a reworking place, as a place of projection for self-understanding.

Identity building and Adolescent moratorium:

Possibilities of Muds as a place of "a psychosocial moratorium"

• Adolescent moratorium by Erik Erikson -- "A time of intense interaction with people and ideas, a time of passionate friendships and experimentation, and a time to try and experiment new things.
• Although the experimentation can have enormous consequences, the experiences themselves feel removed from the structured surroundings of one's normal life.
• The moratorium facilitates the development of a core self, a personal sense of what gives life meanings or identity"

Projection and Transference

• Muds as a space to project onto thoughts and feelings from the past Projection of alternate personae -- the projection of underdeveloped aspects of themselves:
• its psychological meanings -- " to expand a sense of identities by assuming roles where the boundary between self and role becomes increasingly permeable."
• Anonymity, lack of virtual cues and silence in Muds -- encourage projection Discrepancy between the selves in Muds and the selves in physical reality

So, are MUDs good or bad for psychological growth? Complicated, not easy to answer MUDs -- new opportunities and risks for people to work on the stages or developments of their lives.