FREE ESSAY ON INTERNET IDENTITY

INTERNET IDENTITY

It is certain that the Internet impacts a person's sense of identity. As humans, we are
live by language, and as an Internet user, one submits himself to an existence that is
pure language: written, audio, and visual language. This reality, distilled down to pure
language, is appealing to most people. There is no violence online. There are no social
expression norms. A person can be, say, or do precisely as he chooses. More than 131
million people populate the Internet. Why is VR so attractive? When a person is born,
many things are decided for him. No one is asked if their name or visage adequately
describes his person or psyche. His genetic makeup is created from that already contained
in his parents, and they dress and feed him with things they personally enjoy. It is many
years later before he can begin to make decisions about who he is, and by then, so much
has been laid down as factual evidence to the content of his character. The Internet has
now permeated our society. Someone can decide who they are at the beginning of a new
life, to be reborn in cyberspace. There is the issue of naming oneself, to feel inside
and find what makes someone himself. When one signs up with any Internet Service
Provider, the first thing it will ask is for his new name. In *1*The Matrix*1* Mr.
Anderson named himself Neo: New and also an anagram for the One he truly was. There is
now also the ability to visualize the image of self and present that as an avatar in a
visual virtual environment, a step up from nomenclature and font color self-expression.
Deciding what one looks like as an imaginary character is also interesting, and like
naming oneself it can be good psychotherapy. These are used in elaborate chat rooms where
participants immerse themselves in whole new worlds, and where identity is defined by
images and one's own character description. As in a story, dialogue will also define a
character, virtual or otherwise. "Your words are your deeds, your words are your body,"
says *2*Sherry Turkle*2*. There are even thousands of sites that offer self-inspection
quizzes to help people define themselves in a few short questions. What is clear is that
the Internet fluidly becomes an extension of the self, and can play an important role in
defining our identities. Walt Whitman discusses childlike identity changes with, A child
went forth every day/And the first object he look'd upon/That object he became. In real
life (RL) people are told what to do and where to be and how to do so. There are social
norms that presume to inhibit our opinions. That is culture. Yet in Cyberspace, the
immaterial existence of virtual reality (VR), people become in many ways, the masters of
themselves and writers of the universe. How can that not be seen as more appealing?