Social networking sites can be seen as a tool for individual agency, or the notion that people are actors, creating or presenting themselves by playing different roles on different stages to different audiences (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009). The Web provides the spaces and platforms in which people can create and perform different identities that are inconceivable to offline worlds. The creation of online identities raises various social and cultural issues concerning the concept of performance, gender and sexuality play, and the implications these social networking sites and virtual worlds have on offline reality. These issues will be discussed in relation to subjective experiments and a web project that have been undertaken.
The web project was to create and online identity. The online identity that I have created began with ideas circulating around music. Music is virtually a completely subjective part of life, and is a major tool of expression, passion and interest for myself, and many others. Music is cultural glue among youth (Boyde, 2008). Williams and Merton suggest that adolescents who feel they have lost their voice or are unheard by authority figures in their personal lives can channel their energy and need for attention and expression into their online journal (2008, p257). The finished product for my identity web project is a music enthusiast, a music fanatic. I have provided a page that gives people a gateway to knowledge of international and domestic bands, providing audio tracks, band bio’s interviews and live performances.
It was without hesitation that I initially chose to use the Myspace platform to create this identity. This was because I was already familiar with the basic structure and functions of Myspace. I originally chose not to use a blogging platform, as I was unfamiliar with their methods, and already held an account with Myspace.
Before critically analysing the social and cultural implications of the web project, I must first discuss the technical processes completed. Initially, I chose to create a new Myspace music account, which soon proved to be problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, the idea behind having a Music Myspace is that artists upload and display their own music. My thoughts were that uploading music from my itunes might seem like an attempt to claim other people’s music as my own. Secondly, the methods of creating a Music Myspace profile are much different to that of a regular profile. Editing methods and information are different and did not suit the vision for my identity. It was at this point that I realised I was going to use my existing regular Myspace account as I never access it for personal use anymore, and because I already had over 300 “friends” who could see my profile.
I used a website called Hypster.com which enables you to create a playlist of many songs by different artists, then generates a HTML code, making your playlist appear on Myspace. Technical hurdles that I encountered are ones that involve the differences between Myspace 1.0 and Myspace 2.0. The profile layout is different, editing, and even codes to underline and enlarge text. I used one website in particular to learn how to use the new version of Myspace, freecodesource.com. This website, and there are thousands like it, have generators that create HTML codes for the appearance of features on Myspace.
The direction of my web project struggled to gain momentum due to social concerns surrounding Myspace as the chosen platform. The demographic of individuals who would value the content on my page, I found, no longer engage with Myspace. Blogging platforms and Facebook have outdated Myspace, therefore making it inappropriate for the project. It was then my decision to create my online identity on a blogging website, Blogspot.
Difficulties I encountered with Myspace were those such as creating in-text links. Linking text to other websites on Myspace requires you to use a generator to produce a long HTML code. HTML codes were required for text font, size, colour and alignment. One cannot simply compose the appearance of text and have it published. The Myspace layout became awkward to use and the constricted capabilities of Myspace became frustrating and time consuming. I chose to use Blogspot as I wanted to use a different blogging platform from Tumblr, where I blog about the experience. The problems encountered with Myspace were almost all eradicated. Composing text proved much easier, creating links, the overall appearance and vibe of the identity felt much more mature and appropriate.
With the construction of my own experimental online persona, various issues arise surrounding the self as a performance on social networking sites. Social network sites are based around profiles, a form of individual home page, which offers a description of each member (Boyde, 2008). MySpace profiles are yet another mechanism by which individuals, adolescents in particular, can signal information about their identities and tastes. The identity that I had created online was a reflection of subjective interests – where text, images, audio and video all provided valuable means for developing a virtual presence. The choices individuals make in crafting a ‘digital body’ highlight the nature of presentation of performance of the self in social network sites (Boyde, 2008).
Online identities also suggest social and cultural constructions concerning gender. The online world gives users the ability to experiment with and reconstruct ideas about gender. I created my online identity with the objective of having no gender. Readers are subjected to content about music and bands from a source (myself) that I had hoped would not lead them to believe I was a particular gender. As it happens, the bands and musical content of my web page consisted of those that are popular among the lesbian community, thus unintentionally finding a demographic, and constructing an identity online.
The concept of gender experimentation and fluidity in Social Networking Sites and Weblogs in this ‘new forum’ is capable of instigating new ways in which the ‘self’ can be presented. Weblogs could potentially offer new perspectives on the relation between the Internet and the expression of identity (Doorns et al, 2007).
Studies show that “the representational aspect of the relation between online and offline gender identity see the persona that is performed in cyberspace as rooted in a unified, embodied self that is located in the physical world” (Doorns et al, 2007 p144).
The concept here is that the individual behind the keyboard is performing a character that holds a firm relationship to the psychological and biological nature of the physical person. My online identity, without being obviously forward about my own sexuality, supports these ideas.
The next experiment I conducted to “play” with gender and sexuality online was creating an account and Avatar in the virtual reality world called Second Life. Second Life (SL) is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab that launched on June 23, 2003 and is accessible via the Internet. SL enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world, which residents refer to as the grid. Second Life is for people aged 18 and over.
Signing up to Second Life is a process that included various steps to becoming a “Resident” in this virtual community. Step one requires you to provide “first life” information such as your real name, email, country, age and gender. Users are asked to provide real information, yet are given the ability to create themselves as an avatar with differing name and gender. In the disembodied world of the virtual community, identity is ambiguous (Donath, 1998).
Step two is where you create your Second Life name. Users must create a first name for their avatar, then a list of last names is automatically generated where the user is to select one. In my first attempt to name my Avatar ‘Kim,’ SL told me there were no last names, most likely due to the commonality of the name. I then chose to call my avatar ‘Kimmy,’ and from the list of last names I chose ‘Digfoot.’ My avatar: Kimmy Digfoot.
Users are then required to choose a ‘look.’ Which includes choosing one of 12 generic avatars with differing appearances. Users can choose from a range of different stereotypical males and females. I chose to make my avatar a male to experiment with the ability to play with sexuality, and bend gender constructions in online virtual worlds.
Once you have completed to initial steps to creating a Second Life resident you are deployed into the SL community where you are able to participate in tutorials and experiment with the different features of the virtual world.
In my own introductory experience as a SL resident I learnt how to operate my avatar and some of the features such as “fly.” I also engaged in conversation with other residents from overseas.
The social aspects of virtual worlds have positive and negative implications. Individuals are granted access to communicate and bond with others on the other side of the world. However, the addictive and reclusive nature of virtual worlds often causes heavy uses to remove themselves from the real world, and engage less in face-to-face social situations.
As a virtual male, I was able to engage in flirtatious situations with female avatars. Which again raises the question: Do virtual personae inherit the qualities – and responsibilities – of their creators? My activities on Second Life expose the fluidity of gender. Gender is a social institution (O’Brien, 1998). Physical sex attributes provide basic information about how to conduct interactions with others and how to organize social reality. Virtual reality is a realm in which physical markers such as sex, race, age, body type and size lose salience (O’Brien, 1998). Second life is an example of this realm where ‘residents’ have the ability to experiment with sexuality and gender, without the consequences and responsibilities these might have on their “first lives.”
The process of creating an online persona and maintaining its existence was, overall, an agreeable experience. The technical and practical methods involved difficulties and concerns of their own such as Myspace 1.0 to 2.0, changing platform from Myspace to Blogspot. Creating an online identity in social network sites and virtual worlds (Second Life) raised social and cultural concerns surrounding gender categories. These categories evoke a deeply entrenched cognitive-emotive script for who we can be and how we should relate to others (O’Brien 1998). I was able to experience the disembodied nature of online worlds allows users to experiment with gender and sexuality without the physical and social constraints of offline worlds. From the experiments, I found my subjective online experiences to expose to fluidity of gender, and ones ability to perform and selectively present the self, online.
REFERENCES:
Boyde, D. (2008) ‘Why Youth <3 Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked public in Teenage Social life’, in D Buckingham (ed.), Youth, Identity, and Digital Media, University of California, Berkeley, School of Information.
Donath, J S. (1998) ‘Identity and deception in the virtual community’, in M Smith & P Kollock (ed.), Communities in Cyberspace, New York: Routledge, Chp 2.
Doorns, N. Zoonen, L. & Wyatt, S. (2007) ‘Writing from Experience: Presentations of Gender Identity on Weblogs’, European Journal of Women’s Studies. Volume 14, Number 2, pp 143-159.
Greenhow, C. Robelia, B. (2005) ‘Informal learning and identity formation in online networks’, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. Volume 34 Issue 2 pp119-140.
O’Brien, J. (1998) ‘Writing in the body: gender (re)production in online interaction’, in M Smith & P Kollock (ed.), Communities in Cyberspace, New York: Routledge, Chp 4.
Ravetz, J. (1998) ‘The Internet, virtual reality and real reality’, in B Loader (ed.), Cyberspace Divide: equality, agency, and policy in the information society, London; New York: Routledge, Chp 7.
Sherman, B & Judkins, P. (1992) Glimpses of Heaven, Visions of Hell: Virtual Reality and its Implications. London.
Williams, A. Merten, M. (2008) ‘A review of online social networking profiles by adolescents: Implications for future research and intervention.’ Adolescence 43, pp. 253-274.
www.blogspot.com - Here is the link to my finished identity
