Chapter three explores how the issue of identity has been challenged in online contexts. The authors begin with an exploration of the question of telepresence, the degree to which mediated encounters are perceived as real, and continue with a review of various performance metaphors used to interpret online presentations, including gender-swapping. They also discuss a continuum of identity manipulation ranging from anonymity to pseudonymity to real life identity. The chapter concludes with a look at threats to the integrity of identity heightened by new communication technologies, including identity theft and shadow web pages.

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Ask students to visit five personal web sites and analyze how concepts from this chapter are manifest in the identities presented there. Your university may have a collection of personal sites constructed by faculty and students on its site. Alternately, you can always find countless personal home pages at Geocities, Angelfire, and Tripod, among others.

As they review the sample sites, urge students to consider how the authors went about the process of creating an online identity for potential visitors to view. Ask to what degree does the person attempt to interact with you as a reader? Does the author include mechanisms for interactivity such as e-mail, IRC, or a bulletin board? What performative elements can you identify in use? Given each author's choices of material, where would you situate these people on the continuum of identity manipulation? How real are these people to you?

If they have not done so already, consider having students create a home page of their own. Your university and many of the above hosts offer free space and some technical tools, so neither they nor you have to master HTML code in order to get started. (However, Appendix A does contain an HTML primer to get your started if you so choose.) Ask students to consider what information they are comfortable sharing with a worldwide audience. Knowing what you've read in chapter three, to what degree would your own online performance be pseudonymous?

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Download a PowerPoint slideshow for this chapter

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To request sample test questions, contact Matthew Smith at <msmith@wittenberg.edu>. [Instructors only. Proof of institutional affiliation will be required.]

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Winkler, I. (Director). (1995). The net [Film]. Culver City, CA: Columbia Tristar.

This Sandra Bulloch thriller illustrates the worst-case scenario when it comes to identity theft. Bulloch stars as a programmer who gets caught up in a web of intrigue when she accidentally receives an e-mail with a top secret message. In attempting to get at her, the bad guys eliminate all electronic evidence that she ever existed and put her on the run. If the section on identity theft in the chapter made you weary, clips from this film could make you downright paranoid. 

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