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Chatroom Identity Experiment

Sherry Turkle writes in Life on the Screen:
"When we step through the screen into virtual communities, we reconstruct our identities on the other side of the looking glass. This reconstruction is our cultural work in progress" (177).

If we argue that identities--including gender identities--are socially constructed, then online identities should be even easier to 'construct' without the physical delimiters of a body. In order to experience these possibilities in depth, we will be holding our next regular class meeting in an anonymous online chatroom instead of in our classroom. (Do not stay in our physical classroom or even sit near classmates if possible.) During this required chat, you will inhabit as closely as possible to the new identity that you create.

How to Create Your New Online Identity 

1) The only requirements for your 'new' identity are that you role-play to change your sex and your sexuality. You can change more than these two categories as well if you want, but you must change at least your sex & sexuality.

You must stick to this persona throughout our chat, and this is harder than you might think. So think through the details and write up a few character notes for yourself BEFORE the chat. (e.g., Who are you? What's your age? What's your sexual orientation? What music do you like? What do you do for a living? etc.) Remember that you can experiment and be creative here; use Sherry Turkle's article as a guide to see just how creative you can be!

2) While deciding on your new identity, invent a new name (NOT someone who already exists, NOT someone/something famous, NOT a persona anyone else would recognize). This screen name, like Amazon or The Cowboy, should reflect your new personality somehow, so feel free to be creative here.

3) On the sign up sheet in class, write down your new identity. DO NOT PUT YOUR REAL NAME ON THE SHEET OR REVEAL YOUR IDENTITY TO ANYONE! This is an anonymous chat. Keep your identity secret from your classmates and your professor until the chat is over; you need not ever reveal your secret identity if you choose not to.

Remember to write your new alias somewhere for yourself. This is the identity you MUST use when you login to our chat; you cannot change your identity before or during the chat without clearing it with me first.

Test your Login Now

Check your login & access to the virtual classroom to make sure that everything works. Note that it often takes a few minutes to load the chatroom, so leave yourself some time when you log in just before our group chat for class.

Be sure to contact the HUB (678-466-4357/thehub@clayton.edu) well BEFORE the chat date if you have any access problems.

HOW TO LOG IN:

  1. Log in to GeorgiaView as usual, using your usual ID and password.
  2. Click on the CHAT icon in the Navigation Bar at the top our CMS 3101 homepage.
  3. DO NOT ENTER THE CHATROOM YET or it will show your real name. Instead, first, click on the CHAT SETTINGS link and type the name for your newly created online persona in the ALIAS box, and then click SAVE.
  4. After you've entered and saved your alias, now click CHAT LIST.
  5. After the chat list loads, click on the hyperlink for the ANONYMOUS IDENTITY CHATROOM .
  6. The new chatroom window will then open. Once you're inside the chatroom, be sure to check that your alias--NOT YOUR REAL NAME--appears in the list of users on the right side of the window.
  7. Type a few lines to test the chatroom and to get the feel of it too. 

Rules and Response Paper

This is a required class assignment. You are responsible for participating in the experiment fully; no lurking allowed. Again, no one will be required--or asked--to reveal their onscreen personality, so don't waste time trying to figure out who is who. Instructors will be participating in this discussion; however, we will not act as censors or police, except when absolutely necessary. The only rules are the ones stated here, as well as general online etiquette. Amazon Warrior, the moderator, will participate only in the case of flaming, etc.

Response paper: Write a 1-2 page (double-spaced) response to your experience with the experiment, due at the beginning of our next class meeting. As you describe your reactions to the chatroom experience, give two or more examples from the chat to support your observations/reactions (and proove that you participated), and explain how you think they relate to the ideas we're talking about both in Butler and Turkle's essays and in our Media & Culture course overall. Again, you need not reveal your onscreen personality, though you may find it helpful to discuss it in your essay as you think through our course concepts.