Steven Spielberg’s AI (Curtis, Harlan, Kennedy, Parkes, & Spielberg, 2001) offered a tantalizing view of an imminent future in which “mechas” play an increasingly significant role in the lives of people and, yet, are feared for their abilities to replace humanity. As one character, Gigolo Joe, notes, “They made us too smart, too quick, and […]

Another identity that is being further compromised by Internet technologies is the public identity of people, organizations, and their creations. Entities like manufacturers, film studios, and retailers go to considerable lengths to protect their images from misrepresentation. Certainly, many of these entities have established a presence on the World Wide Web to promote their preferred […]

we look at two identity-related threats of growing concern in the Information Age: identity fraud and shadow identities Identity Fraud Most of us spend a good deal of time, consciously or unconsciously, building a good reputation. We strive to make our credit card and automobile loan payments on time, we work hard to earn passing […]

Gender-swapping occurs when an individual of one gender self-presents as a member of another gender. As you probably know, gender is a social construct that provides guidelines for how we expect people of a certain biological sex to behave. For example, men are expected to be masculine and thus strong and women to be feminine […]

In the presentation of self in text-only media, one is not recognized by one’s physical appearance, but through one’s verbal behaviors. Obviously, one might offer a description of one’s persona or disclose personal characteristics that contribute to others’ impression formations. Yet according to Mark Giese (1998), there is another way that people come to identify […]

An identity is a complex personal and social construct, consisting in part of who we think ourselves to be, how we wish others to perceive us, and how they actually perceive us. In particular, CMC research has looked at the second of these fragments: how we wish others to perceive us. The process of setting […]