This week's blog post topic

Hi all,

Here is the prompt for this week's blog post. Let me know if you have questions/comments. 

Andrew

For the week of September 13^th, 2012

Theme: Online Identity and Presentation

In this week’s readings, authors discuss the ways in which the concept of identity has been changed by the Internet age. Palfrey and Glasser state that “Digital Natives almost never distinguish between the online and offline version of themselves” (p. 20). Banet-Weiser notes that “girls reference brands not simply as commodities but as the context for everyday living” (p. 285). Finally, writing in 1990, Haraway says that “gender, race, or class consciousness is an achievement forced on us by the terrible historical experience of the contradictory social realities of patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and capitalism” (p. 197).

In this week’s blog post, you should look for the intersection of these three readings. Your post could, for example, explore the ways in which Haraway’s (last century) idea of the cyborg is mediated or shaped by the ability of teenage girls to broadcast themselves on YouTube. Or you could explore the ways in which you think online and offline identities mix, and how this is related to branding. You’re also free to reject my ideas and write something about your own experiences and the thoughts that these readings sparked. In any case, your post will be strengthened by citing the authors when appropriate and drawing connections between your reading of the three required texts for this week.

Here's a link to a YouTube video mentioned in Sarah Banet-Weiser's article. Read the comments (as Banet-Weiser suggests in the article).