Sherry Turkle contends, “The development of windows for computer interfaces was a technical innovation motivated by the desire to get people working more efficiently by cycling through different applications. But in the daily practice of many computer users, windows have become a powerful metaphor for thinking about the self as a multiple, distributed system.” (Turkle, Sherry Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. Touchstone, New York, New York, pp. 14). Turkle made this claim in 1995, and her prediction painted an accurate picture of the future of cyberspace. The development of computer interfaces coupled with the growth of cyberspace truly has allowed the average Joe to develop numerous personas simultaneously. In accordance with these developments, Turkle also claims that having numerous online personas is consistent with postmodernist and poststructuralist philosophical theories of self. This bold claim by Turkle may have caused controversy fifteen years ago but the connection is blatantly obvious to anyone who has used the web 15 years after her prediction.
Philosophically, postmodernism does not define the self as single entity, rather a being created fictional or factional constructs within the environment. An anonymous aim project assigned illustrates this idea very well. Students were assigned to make up an online persona and were subsequently assigned to chat with other student’s personas. The identity of my character is not as important as the parameters of the project. Students were given the opportunity to recreate themselves to be either gender, any race, speak any language, even be a mythical creature.
My experience in the online chat was one I won’t forget, not because of the conversations themselves, rather maintaining the persona I created was a new and eye opening experience. I felt as though I was my online persona. Pretending to be someone or something else was odd at first, but after a while I realized the benefits it affords. Akin to Turkle’s argument, I was given the opportunity to be something I can’t in real life. In real life, I cannot be an aspiring sculptor born and raised in southern California, but in cyberspace I can, and it feels real, or at least real enough to be satisfied.
This got me thinking of how postmodernist philosophical thought fits into the broader context of the future of the internet. I have realized that whenever I am surfing numerous pages on the web, or playing video games, or even doing online homework, my actions parallel postmodernist thought. One second I can be someone reading the news and the next second I can a soldier in World War II. This affords me the opportunity to discover, redefine, reinvent, and expand myself as a person through interactions in cyberspace.
