Talkin' 'Bout My Generation

This week's reading, the BusinessWeek story "The MySpace Generation", was an interesting look at an outsider's view of the ever-changing youth culture online, especially considering the piece was written over a year ago, when MySpace was just beginning to gain widespread attention among those outside of the demographic that regularly visited the site. As the article points out, the power that users of MySpace and other online social networking sites exercise in determining companies' advertising strategies can hardly be overestimated; even corporations as large as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble are "clamoring to be a part of the new social landscape."

However, the portion of the article that struck me most forcefully was the description of a seemingly typical day in the life of Amanda Adams. Like most persons her age, she regularly visits and contributes to several blogging and social networking sites, holds Instant Messenger conversations, watches television, listens to music, and interacts with friends in the same room with her—all simultaneously. Although this is simply dubbed "multitasking" and seen as commonplace by some, I find it disconcerting to say the least. Granted, I often find myself in similar scenarios, but the fact that this is a nearly perpetual state of being for many others my age and younger is, in my opinion, the source of many of the problems facing our society today.

First, this sort of constant sensory overload is almost certainly the cause of the relatively recent spike in cases of ADD and ADHD. As individuals become accustomed to seemingly endless streams of stimuli, they begin to seek out this sort of stimulation in other situations, making it difficult for them to focus entirely on any one thing. Similarly, the relatively small amount of attention paid to each of the activities in which a person is engaged while multitasking in this way becomes the norm. When the individual encounters a subject that requires his or her full attention, he or she will then have difficulty fully devoting his or her senses to that subject. This kind of less-than-full attention may be acceptable in some instances, but in others it is undoubtedly inadequate.

As for "Web 2.0...The Machine Is Us/ing Us", I think it's a near-perfect illustration of how the Internet and its concomitant technologies have changed and are still changing our lives. Of course, I also feel this video is noteworthy as well. Although its production quality is nowhere near that of Professor Wesch's video, it raises a few interesting points regarding the opening moments of the latter.

"The MySpace Generation" @ BusinessWeek
"Web 2.0...The Machine Is Us/ing Us" @ YouTube
"Web 2.0...We Respond to We/sch" @ YouTube
MySpace

Sheila, the Discursive and Loquacious Salamander, Speaks Her Mind

So, I don't think I can begin to say how pleased I was to encounter John Suler's "Identity Management in Cyberspace" this week—except that I just began to say how pleased I was to encounter it. With all the discussion about how we ought to fill out our Blogger profiles and how we should post pictures of ourselves on our forthcoming website, I was beginning to think I'd be solely burdened with articulating the merits of withholding personal information and veiling our identities. However, after reading Suler's examination of online identity, I no longer fear this prospect as it seems I'm not the only one who sees the many values of online "identity management," though my perspective (as naïve as it may be) differs considerably from Suler's.

See, it seems to me that virtually every aspect of human culture is too highly politicized. In face-to-face interactions, it's nearly always the most charismatic or personable individual who garners the most attention and clout. The advent of the printing press could've changed this feature of human interaction (content can be dissociated from its source in printed media), but you still had to be "in" with the people who ran the presses, whether you got "in" via money or by way of personability. Then the moving picture and the radio became the preferred media for opinion and information dispersal, but they, too, forced the "speaker" to convey at least one aspect of his or her identity that could influence the acceptability of his or her message. The Internet, however, promised a change in all this.

Thanks to the Internet, any individual with access to a computer and a basic understanding of markup languages can post whatever they want for whomever to see. If Francis, a meek and unsuccessful financial adviser, wants to publish a romantic swashbuckling tale, he can do so online without convincing others of his story-crafting abilities and without fearing ridicule or retribution. Likewise, if a stay-at-home, suburban mom wants to establish her own crunktastic hip-hop label, she can start it online under a false identity without worrying about being dismissed as unqualified to evaluate crunk music.

The point is that people who might be perceived as somehow unentitled to do or say a given thing can overcome this handicap in the world of the Internet by assuming new identities or retaining anonymity. Sure, it might make it more difficult to wade through the murky waters of questionable material in search of desirable content, but at least this relatively newfound freedom can expand the chorus of voices contributing to the development of human knowledge and culture. Of course, as Suler points out, there are the psychological benefits of individuals' online explorations of their psyches, but if we expand our frame of reference from the individual to humanity as a whole, it seems the collective can only "manage the multiplicities of [its] selfhood" and maintain good "mental health" by acknowledging every aspect of its "personality" (e.g., by allowing the amateur or untrained political philosopher to theorize about a new form of government instead of suppressing his or her opinion). In short, it's not only fun and/or healthy to manipulate and obscure our identities online; it's necessary for the fullest development of society, and in some cases, it may be our civic duty.

Identity Management in Cyberspace by John Suler
Do Boys (and Girls) Just Wanna Have Fun? by John Suler