Not that anonymous in Facebook, actually

Online games from more socially oriented MUDs to small avatar generation application in online forum are most likely enacting the possibilities of postmodern identity construction. Identities are invented and changeable in these virtual enviornment, we are encouraging to role play rather than developing personae that are reasonably coherent to the one in real life.


When it comes to Facebook, whose rapid success is found to rely on its ability to connect people who already have an existing offline social interaction (Chi, Wai & all 2009), identity play is more restrict. To develop and to mock personae that at odd with individual’s own life perhaps is less effective in Facebook. The context and the medium characteristics of specific new media are thus important to be addressed in our discussion of online identities. In facebook, individual is less likely to interact anonymously, therefore there is less identity invention, and gender swaping take place. Even though the platform allow individual to change their ‘sex’ or other personal information, and there is indeed someone occasionally play with, they are usually just for the sake of fun, and aware of themselves and all the other contact who know them in real life would not take it seriously.


Chi, L. C., Wai, K.,& Seow, G. (2009) 'Transplanting Social Capital to the Online World’, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce,19:3,214 — 236

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