Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
ferent personas there, the individual voices that
make up a cyber community are often referred
to as 'avatars' (Jordan, 1999: 59, 67). The irrel-
evance of geographical location with regard to
CMC contributes to the phenomenon known as
disembeddin
g: that is, enabling users to transcend
their immediate surroundings and communicate
on a global platform (Giddens, 1990). Besides
this feature of 'disembedding', the online environ-
ment prior to Web 2.0 was defined by the use of
discursive form (textuality) and the ability to com-
municate anonymously. These features are seen
as empowering since users are not constrained by
both time and space and are at liberty to recreate
and deconstruct their identities online.
The 'avatar' culture may offer people a degree
of freedom to conceal identity and to approach
taboo topics without the constraints of the real
world. It can help forge new identities as well
as new relationships. As the 'virtual' world is
mediated through technology, the user may be
bound by a new set of rules to negotiate this
realm. Nevertheless, this hybrid form of commu-
nication does not exist in a vacuum. Discourses
in the Internet can interact with happenings in
other media and reflect one's physical context
of existence. As such various online interactions
can be embedded in disparate ways into larger
social structures, such as professions and social
movements. The dynamics of online interactions
may be difficult to comprehend except through
this physical embedding (Friedland, 1996; Miller
and Slater, 2000; Slevin, 2000; Wynn & Katz,
1997; Slater, 2002). In this sense, the culture of
the physical world can invariably transcend into
cyberspace, thus further altering the pattern of
mediated communications.
Early discourses of the Internet and present
debates about the web indicate that identity is
a contentious and fragmented construct in view
of the absence of physical cues in a discursive
and subsequently a multimedia environment
(Stefanone et al. 2008:107). Compared to the
earlier Internet environment which leveraged on
experimentation with identity, today's computer-
mediated communication aligns the users closer
to their offline selves. The increasing emphasis
on existing offline identities and relationships
as well as physical and non-verbal communica-
tion cues and manipulation defines the nature of
computer-mediated communication today (Ste-
fanone et al. 2008).
the ProliFerAtion oF
netWorking sites
The shift in the discourses of empowerment and
increasing need to declare and share identities
may also be attributed to the technological ad-
vancements inherent in the new social web. Web
2.0 encapsulates a plethora of tools - including
wikis, blogs, and folksonomies - which promote
creativity, collaboration, and sharing between
users (Szomszor et al. 2008:33). The multimedia
experience and social communication platforms
thus equally characterise the Web 2.0 user culture.
From a technical and social perspective, Web 2.0,
in comparison to its earlier manifestation, refers
to improved applications, increased utilization
of applications by users, and the incorporation
of content generative technologies into everyday
life by those who can afford and access such
technologies.Anderson (2007) identifies the Web
2.0 environment as a new and improved second
version and particularly a user-generated web
which is characterised by blogs, video sharing,
social networking, and podcasting - delineating
both the production and consumption of the web
environment where both activities can be seam-
less. Beyond its technical capacities, the term
is a convenient social construct to analyze new
forms of processes, activities, and behaviors -
both individual and collective as well as public
and commercial - that have emerged from the
Internet environment.
Unlike earlier websites which thrived on the
notion of anonymity and virtuality, these new
Search WWH ::
Custom Search