New media and self-identity

Reading Campbell's study of online skinhead groups, I though that the search for 'authenticity' has only arisen as social and economic change has disrupted peoples' old ways of life and made them nostalgic for something seemingly solid to cling to. In the past, the social and economic changes which some expected would produce a more global or international outlook in fact had the opposite effect. For example, Islamic fundamentalism rose in popularity in the 1970s at a time when many Muslim countries were increasing in wealth and in their integration into the world economy. To organise themselves, Islamic groups used modern communications, albeit non-digital ones such as jet travel. So, it is no surprise that the internet is now being used to try and build up identities based on authenticity.

In deed, the colonization of New Zealand brought people far from their homelands and involved them in the formation of new states, connected internationally by steamships and telegraph communications. Nonetheless, settlers and immigrants constructed their identities around old and seemingly identities. For example, Orange Orders were organised in New Zealand (Moyes, 1994).

The disintegration of the USSR and the Eastern bloc has also led to an upsurge of nationalism, not only in that part of the world but also among emigrants across the world. Many migrants are well educated and make use of the internet. This sort of example tends to strengthen the argument that forms of media are relatively neutral. After all, the internet can equally be used to spread information which de-mythologizes dubious claims to 'authenticity'.

Kennedy's finding that most internet users do not want to 'submerge' their identity does not surprise me. People's 'identities' seem fluid or fragmented because of social change, not because they want anonymity.

Moyes, T.A. (1994). The sash their fathers wore: a history fo Orangeism in the North Island of New Zealand, 1868-1900.Dissertation (MA-History)- University of Auckland.

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