Negotiating Identity Online (Weeks 5/6 Discussion Prompts/Notes)

Discuss any of the following quotes and/or concepts, using the texts to support your response:

  

TOPICS/CONCEPTS:

--the manifestation of aggression in online communication/contexts (particularly among girls)

--differences among IM communication versus other forms of communication

--consumerism/advertising via online social networks and communication systems

--cyberspace as a “democratizing” realm (Stern 112)

--digital divide/issues of access/class issues in technology

--gender fluidity online

--negotiating/constructing identity through social networks and online communication

--adolescent cybersex and experimentation

--online bullying

CONCEPTS/QUOTES (from Instant Identity):

“Keeping in mind this dichotomy between IM as a safe space to experiment with identity and as a space where dominant patriarchal discourses also exist […] this chapter offers an intercession for understanding how adolescent girls, through their uses of IM, negotiate and articulate their identities, especially with regard to gender” (3).

“Disembodiment, like that afforded through online communication, exists in a fast-paced, multi-networked environment across different races, genders, classes, religions, vast geographic locations, provoking myriad questions about how the lack of a body may shape and color one’s perception of culture and one’s location within culture” (4)

Stuart Hall’s “narrative of the self”: “Hall furthers our understanding of the ever-shifting nature of identity, pronouncing it ‘never unified or coherent,’ except when people wish to construct a ‘narrative of the self” (4).

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“In the disembodied world of the Internet, identity is complicated through the notion of representation” (5).

Judith Butler’s idea of “hailing”: “[G]ender identity is a performed construction based upon dominant cultural discourses. Females and males ‘perform’ what they interpret their gender to be based upon, what their culture has taught them is the correct (heterosexual) interpretation” (4).

Other questions/discussion prompts:

Discuss the implications of sharing information, images, and other representations of self on Facebook, IM, and other social/communication mediums in varied contexts (U.S. vs. Arab vs. Korean, for example).

Some questions Stern poses that you might consider (page 113):

--What are the implications of IM for adolescent girls, their communications styles, and their negotiation of gender identity?

--What do the findings from Instant Identity say about our culture(s) in general?

--What does this all mean for now and for the future?