Fragmentations of Online and Offline Life

Sherry Turkel's article "Who Am We" discusses the fragmentation of our online and offline lives in her discussion about MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons).

Online, we are able to be things we would not ordinarily be in real life. Through an online persona, we can try on different masks that exhibit different types of personalities, behaviors, or characteristics. For example, a quiet, mild-mannered 9-5 worker during the daytime can come home at night and be a fearless, unrelenting tyrant online, insulting other users left and right. A macho high school football jock who abuses geeky kids during the day, can go online and become a respectful, thoughtful Shakespeare admirer. As Turkel states:

''The anonymity of MUDs gives people the chance to express multiple and often unexplored aspects of the self, to play with their identity and to try out new ones. MUDs make possible the creation of an identity so fluid and multiple that it strains the limits of the notion. Identity, after all, refers to the sameness between two qualities, in this case between a person and his or her persona. But in MUDs, one can be many. ''

The "fragmentation" is the bits and pieces of ourselves that come out in different forms. One part of ourselves is fragmented and exhibited in an online setting. Another part of ourselves is fragmented and exhibited in an offline setting, and so on.

It is also important to note Turkel's point that children are unable to view technology as inanimate at times:

Children develop the two concepts in parallel and take what they understand to be the computer's psychological activity (interactivity as well as speaking, singing, and doing math) as a sign of consciousess.

This is an important distiction between adults who see no consciousness in technology, and the rising generation. Time will show what effect this has on people's action of fragmenting.


 * Return to New Media Mid-Term Study Guide