::Real, authentic and saturated ::

I was thinking about identity presentation online and so I went back to flip through a few pages of Turkle's ""Life on the Screen" and found one truly notable section. It is in chapter 10, in a section called "Logins R Us" on page 256-258.

Turkle is applying the concepts of a social psychologist called Kenneth Gergen (1991) and she makes reference to his theory of the "saturated self".

She says of the concept:

"we colonize each other's brains" causing us to become "saturated with the 'many voices of humankind -- both harmonious and alien'…we exist in a state of continous construction and reconstruction; it is a world where anything goes that can be negotiated. Each reality of self gives way to reflexive questioning, irony, and ultimately the playful probing of yet another reality'…(we) come to embrace new possibilities. Individual notions of self vanish "into a state of relatedness. One ceases to believe in a self independent of the relations in which he or she is embedded'…". (p.257)

I've deliberately picked out what I see as the the best parts of her argument to share here, but I invite you read or re-read the section…For now, I'll use Turkle's own words to sum it up .. It's about the idea of "identity as multiplicity" (p.258)

What fascinates me about this is the juxtaposition with the other things Turkle has gone over in this book i.e. is online real? And can online be authentic? When these questions are fused with the question of a saturated self or a multiplicitous self, a new meta question appears...How does a real person who happens to be virtual also be simultaneously multiple and authentic?

Other questions are also suggested...

Where are the boundaries between front stage and back stage?

Do they still exist?

If they do, are they even relevant in this context?

The questions, then, aren't so much about the "why" of it all, as it is the "how" and the examination of the end result. While Turkle didn't deal specifially with the gaming identity aspects of MOOs and MUDs and MMPOGs etc, the question is clearly there in her work, though not necessarily synthesized in this way.

When you add in aspects of gaming where the demand to juggle an ever-larger multitude of selves that may or note be "other" for your flesh self, when your online identity saturates and splits and refracts your presentation of self over and over, what is the micro and macro social and personal consequence of this act? And is this act truly so different from the multitude of selves we already juggle in our daily lives i.e. co-worker, mother, manager, webbie, etc. etc. etc.? or is the only difference the place or the quantity of selves juggled?

It is my belief, therefore, that this is where sociologists should be focusing attention, in order to observe, examine, ponder, theorize and inform. This is certainly an area I intend to focus on in my own future research.