Lost in the crowd?

In his 2004 book 'Distraction', author Mark Curtis argued that our sense of self - or personal identity - can become confused or challenged when we habitually use digital technology. He made several interesting points about the blurring of boundaries between public and private (think of webcams and Facebook status updates for example) and that technology tends to distract us from 'who we are'. There has been some debate over whether or not people should combine their personal and business social media identities.

Curtis argues from the position that identity is malleable, rather than fixed, and that we learn from a very early age that we can be someone else through role playing, imagination or masquerade. Our immersion in media, he argues, provides us with a myriad of alternative role models we can adopt or adapt. By the same token, social media also give us endless opportunities to engage with others, including sports stars, entertainers, politicians and other celebrities. The Curtis position is that other people's lives are more glamorous than our own, and therefore we wish we could be them to escape from the mundane, if only for a while. All very well, but I'm not convinced that this argument is applicable to everyone. Does wishing to be someone else mean that you actually adopt their identity? I think not.

Curtis also seems to be implying that people are often unwilling or at least unconscious participants in the digital obfuscation of their identities. Again, this is a far from convincing argument, but even if it were true, would it really so much of a bad thing that we are able to engage in multiple online identity performance? What dangers might there be? Also, do we really find ourselves forced into performing multiple identities against our will?

Those who follow this blog or my Twitter accounts (yes, plural) will know that I am very willing to experiment with multiple identities, because I am fascinated by the possibilities and intrigued by the psychology behind personal use of social media. However, I engage with this through choice, and I feel fully in control of what is broadcast/published.

Immersion in environments such as virtual social worlds (Curtis uses Habbo Hotel as his example) are also argued to be a means where the boundaries of identity can be blurred. He makes a useful point that in such environments you don't necessarily know the people you are interacting with, because they often hide behind pseudonyms and always represent themselves as avatars. This does not necessarily mean though, that your identity is being changed or that you are 'losing control' of who you are. It may mean though that you open yourself up to identity theft or manipulation of your public facing image by others. Curtis also makes a useful point that managing multiple identities can demand a lot of effort and therefore becomes a distraction. I have discovered the effects of this personally, because I maintain six Twitter accounts. I therefore need to be very careful especially when using Tweetdeck that I check carefully which account I'm using before I hit the send button. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Reference
Curtis, M. (2004) Distraction: Being Human in the Digital Age. London: Futuretext.

Image source


Lost in the crowd? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Hard cell

Readers of this blog will know that most schools throughout the UK and in many other countries have a long standing ban on the use of cell/mobile phones within school grounds. This is due in part to a number of distressing incidents involving phone cameras that have been used to record and glamourize so-called 'happy slapping' and other aggressive, anti-social acts. There are also concerns over distraction, disruption and other intrusive effects of mobile phones in the classroom. Add onto this doubts and concerns over child safety, health risks through non-ionising radiation and the possibility of theft or loss of expensive small items, and the result is a ban that has shown no signs of being lifted within the forseeable future.

I gave a lecture to a group of 80 or so PGCE Secondary students this morning in which we discussed these issues. The general consensus of opinion seemed to be that mobile phones had the potential to be used for good, but that the problems seemed to be intractable. My solution was to set up some controlled pilot trials in a few schools to demonstrate how mobile phones can provide added value to the learning experience if used responsibly and equitably.

Out of the blue tonight in a timely manner, came an e-mail from Tom Hanson over at OpenEducation.Net. Tom writes:

Needless to say, the general consensus regarding cell phones and schools is that the two simply do not mix. However, a new study from the UK gives strong indication that schools should give greater consideration to putting these handheld mobile devices to work.

Tom's post goes under the title of Cell Phones - Time to Lift the Ban on Mobiles in the School Setting? It's an engaging read and provides both perspectives in the discussion. Although the jury is still out, and the cell/mobile phone is still in the dock, this post may add a little balance to the ongoing debate. What is your view on cell/mobile phones in schools?

(image source: Sonofthesouth.net)

Cold Turkey?

So I spent (almost) a two week holiday completely OFFline! I admit I suffered the usual withdrawal symptoms though and was tempted on perhaps three or four occasions to go online - the opportunities have been there. You see, I didn’t have internet access in the house I stayed in, but there were several places such as libraries, museums, etc around the region so I could have. I did the same thing last year when we went on holiday to Spain for two weeks – a holiday is a holiday, and I try to avoid anything that resembles work! I admit I do keep my mobile phone with me, but only to take pictures and keep in touch with family.

I heroically resisted the siren's call of the Internet and went cold turkey until the penultimate day of my holiday when I finally succumbed during a visit to Newcastle. I found a computer in a library at the University, logged on and my fears were justified. 268 e-mails were stacked up staring at me, and 197 of them were spam. Blimey. Shouldn’t have bothered. So I had to respond directly to 71 messages when I got home...

Appropriately, I’m reading Distraction by Mark Curtis at the moment. It’s an interesting book, dealing with the pressure we are under today to manage the growing tide of information that continually washes up on our personal shores. Perhaps his most important question in the book is ‘Do we run the risk of believing that data is everything and confusing information with knowledge?’ Curtis believes we have reached the ‘tipping point’ where humankind (at least in the industrialised nations) has no way back in an ‘always connected’ culture. There's an interview with him at this link if you want to know more. The book is not all doom and gloom though, and engages the reader with a number of scenarios in which information and communication technologies can enhance life and create new opportunities for creativity and lively community engagement. He warns though, that the boundaries between public and private spaces are being eroded by digital technologies and we are all being sucked into this vortex. Well, I guess it will be time for me to go cold turkey again in a short while … probably just around Christmas.