Performance of identity & Anonymity
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 by chosen
The society that surrounds us today critically analyze who we are, therefore making people want to hide their true identity. The new media offers the concept of anonymity in virtual communities and online identities.
But in our offline community we are judged and judge people through whom and what they identify with. This judgmental approach that our society takes makes everyone in society to identify with things that may not truly be a part of who they are. Identity consist aspects such as physical appearance, religious, aesthetics, gender, wealth status and much more, but we highlight aspects of our identity, we feel will be accepted by the society and make us individuals at the same time. Luke mentioned in the lecture ‘identity is in constant tension between belonging to a certain group and being unique as well’ which highlights the fear that every individual have of alienating oneself. This fear of alienation relates to Erving Goffman’s argument of “who we are defined by what people think of us”. We are defined by the people’s judgment on is so therefore portray or highlight an aspect of our identity that is socially acceptable. Goffman also stated “we are in a level of performance to define what people think of us. Carefully construct what we present to the world.” We are always thinking about how we are perceived, but in the online world there can be a form of anonymity.
The anonymity the online identity offers, allows users to start new of whom they are and who they want to be. But the concept of being anonymous is not as easy as feeling anonymous. The online world offers a distance barrier but the way users write and the links they use are ways to find out a part of the offline users identity. We a society may feel anonymous while surfing the internet, but how we use it makes us identifiable to a certain degree.
But in our offline community we are judged and judge people through whom and what they identify with. This judgmental approach that our society takes makes everyone in society to identify with things that may not truly be a part of who they are. Identity consist aspects such as physical appearance, religious, aesthetics, gender, wealth status and much more, but we highlight aspects of our identity, we feel will be accepted by the society and make us individuals at the same time. Luke mentioned in the lecture ‘identity is in constant tension between belonging to a certain group and being unique as well’ which highlights the fear that every individual have of alienating oneself. This fear of alienation relates to Erving Goffman’s argument of “who we are defined by what people think of us”. We are defined by the people’s judgment on is so therefore portray or highlight an aspect of our identity that is socially acceptable. Goffman also stated “we are in a level of performance to define what people think of us. Carefully construct what we present to the world.” We are always thinking about how we are perceived, but in the online world there can be a form of anonymity.
The anonymity the online identity offers, allows users to start new of whom they are and who they want to be. But the concept of being anonymous is not as easy as feeling anonymous. The online world offers a distance barrier but the way users write and the links they use are ways to find out a part of the offline users identity. We a society may feel anonymous while surfing the internet, but how we use it makes us identifiable to a certain degree.