Communication and Cyberspace - Creating Paradoxes for the Ecology of Self - Sue Barnes

"In traditional physical environments, a concept of self is developed through face-to-face encounters with other people and objects. In contrast, cyberspace interaction takes place symbolically in a media-generated space." (pg.230)

"The self that exists as a unified mind and body in a physical space becomes a seperate and distributed digital self. This new digital self encounters paradoxical situations in cyberspace that could threaten the ecological self that inhabits a natural world." (pg.230)

"It is a 'non-space', a hyperdimensional realm that we enter through technology." (pg.231)

"An individual self is established by organizing the attitudes of other individuals toward the self and toward one another through participation in social interaction." (pg.240)

"Thus, by understanding the role of others, we can develop our own individual roles and consequently a sense of self." (pg.240)

"Monist theories of self argue that the physical body is an integral part of self-development. Touching, feeling, and having access to all five senses is essential to interacting with objects and people. According to this perspective, a separation of mind and body in cyberspace will inhibit self-growth. Therefore, integrating the physical body with the digital representation of self in cyberspace would be essential for developing self-identity." (pg.240)

"On the one hand, eliminating the body makes us more equal because we no longer have access to the visual information of sex, age, or race. But on the other hand, the quality of human relationships narrows, because unlike face-to-face communication, we do not have a full range of visual and verbal sensory information" (pg.247)

"People can now communicate and develop relationships without ever meeting each other in a face-to-face situation" (pg.247)

"The formation of symbolic or virtual communities raises the issue of how people will develop a self-identity when they communicate through electronic media instead of face-to-face interaction" (pg.247)

"electronic media is fragmenting self-conceptions. In electronic media "the self is decentered, dispersed, and multiplied in continuous instability" (Poster, 1960, pg 6). Gergen (1991) describes this condition as the "saturated self": "the evening at home once quiet, relaxed and settling, is now - by dint of telephone, automobile, television and the like - a parade of faces, information and intrusion" (pg.248)

"Additionally, a myriad of electronic relationships can invite 'us to play such a variety of roles that the very concept of an 'authentic self' with knowable characteristics recedes from view" (Gergen, 1991, pg 7)" (pg.248)

"The lack of personal visual information in network exchanges allows people to test new personalities and even create totally fictitious ones." (pg.248)

"To summarize, Poster (1990) states when computer communication replaces face-to-face communication the subject is affected in the following ways: (a) new possibilites for playing with identities is possible, (b) gender cues are removed, (c) existing hierachies in relationships are destablized, and (d) the subject is dispersed and dislocated in space and time." (pg.249)


Additional references:
Gibson, W. (1991). Academy leader. In M. BEnedikt (Ed.) Cyberspace: First steps (pp.27-29). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Poster, M (1990). The mode of information. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1966) The social construction of reality. New York: Anchor Books.