Look Here for Class Discussions
Sherry Turkle starts this last chapter in her book Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet by mentioning what psychological well-being was thought of in previous eras and then mentions what it is in our time. She says that "health" is described in terms of fluidity rather than stability". I think this statement says a lot about "change" and how we all must have the ability to adapt when something new appears. There is a situation mentioned in this introuduction which compares a girl who moves along three households. This girl evidently says that each household is different and so is she. When this girl plays in MUD?s (Multiple User Domain), swithing personae is quite natural since she can do it in RL. Turlke makes reference to Emily Martin who is the author of Flexible Bodies hence the situation of this girls comes from her work.
The next section of Turkle's chapter 10 goes on to describe different people's input on identity online. She talks about a "WELL" discussion group in which online personae. They share a sense that thier virtual indentities were evocative objects for thinking about the self. Overall, these participants expressd the notion that life online introduced them to the many within themselves. To reidirate, I think Turkle makes a connection to the internet as a means for people to explore their different sides or personalities.
Being a student in Dr. James' course on Cyberpsychology, we had a class discussion on Sherry Turkle through our Web Crossing (class discussions). There was a discussion on the interview between Sherry Turkle and Howard Rheingold. Look here for this report on the interview. As I read through Chapter 10 of Turkles book, I came across Howard Rheingold's name. I found out that he was a member in the WEll. I wondered how Rheingold got the chance to interview Turkle and I wondered why she gave her time to responding.
Turkle talks a little about "virtuality as transitional space". She describes a situation about a graduate student at MIT who lost her leg in an accident and used a MUD to seek advice on treatment. The outcome of her experience on the internet allowed her to find herself some help and it was beneficial to her psychological as well as physical well-being. She was able to get the courage to move on with life despite her prothesis.
Turkle ends her chapter and book by mentioning "self-knowlege". She talks a little about philosophy and how self-knowledge has always been at the core of philosophical interests. I got the impression that she believes we all should work on ourselves in order to improve ourselves, hopefully allowing us to make our surroundings better thereafter. Facing post-modern times, we must all keep working on ourselves as we integrate our real life as well as our life on screen.
Last, but not least, I would like to quote with respect what Turkle believes is fundamental for us to integrate our identity on screen not by trying to live our lives on it, but to use it as tools in the real world. As I understand it, we can use the internet as an anvenue to explore, be creative, learn, attain exposure, and so forth. However, what we get out of using the internet is as critical as what we experience while we use it.
What do all the millions of newbies, just beginning to venture into cyberspace, need to understand, as thy begin their initiation, about the ways their minds, relationships, lives might change? Any internal maps or rules of the road that you would derive from the conclusions in your book?>
Like my conclusion to Chapter 10, in this interview, Turkle mentions that "the experience of playing selves in various cyber-contexts, perhaps even at the same time, on multiple windows, is a concretization of another way of thinking about the self, not as unitary, but as multiple". She also restates that "psychological health is not tantamount to achieving a state of oneness, but the ability to make transitions among the many an to reflect on our-selves by standing in a space between states".
