Jonas Lund Trimester1-Draft

Abstract
An overview of current developments, thoughts and opinions on the self within networked culture based on sharing, in relation to the personalized web and anonymity.

Draft
The social-media revolution has just begun, and it’s quickly spreading to every part of our lives. Services such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Latitude, Blippy, Klout allows to share everything from our daily events, our location (in real time), all of our credit card purchases, either in front of a computer or on the go with our, always-on, connected smartphones. In 2010 John Doerr invested $250 million dollars into a venture capital fund dedicated to putting money into social, he argues, as outlined by Andrew Keen, that “‘social’ represents the ‘third great wave’ of technological innovation, after the invention of the personal computer and the internet.” (Keen)

As the web transformed from a one directional information highway, in which the users were mere consumers of content into a bi-directional, read-write, peer to peer social one, so too have we changed our behaviour. When surfing the web as a kid in the mid 90s you could be anyone, there was no incentive, other than goodwill, to be yourself. With the move into the social sharing model – the reasons and benefits of acting as your own self increased – the paradigm changed, long gone was the idea of anonymity.

Rushkoff argues in ‘Program or be Programmed’ that we should strive for being oneself online, as the benefits largely outweigh the downsides. He writes, “By resisting the temptation to engage from the apparent safety of anonymity, we remain accountable and present—and much more likely to bring our humanity with us into the digital realm.” (p.80 Rushkoff)

Rushkoff believes that by allowing anonymity online we open up a dangerous zone of non-accountability, a model where we can act without any consequences, and that that is negative for the future of the web and its inhabitants, as it allows us to be non-human, disconnected for our real selves.

However, being your sharing-happy self online is not purely beneficial – it also opens up other dangerous, less apparent, behaviors. If Google and Facebook, largely funded by advertisement, have a clear picture of who you are, they can use that against you, not only to target you with ads more accurately, but also to alter their services to a personalized version only for you.

Brad Troemel writes, “The capacity to manipulate and construct an identity online separate from our everyday existence is an expression of freedom from totalizing surveillance that would automatically provide information of our behalf [...] A true conception of freedom of expression must include the possibility of lying or abstaining from expression altogether” (p.104, Troemel)

Bibliography D. Rushkoff, 2010 Program or Be Programmed,
B Troemel, 2011, Peer Pressure
E. Pariser, 2010, The Filter Bubble
S. Turkel, 2005, The Second Self

A Keen, 2011, Sharing is a trap