People around the world are meeting in places that consist of little more than a touch of some hardware, a dash of electricity, and a pinch of code. As the Internet becomes increasingly incorporated into our lives the subject of online identity becomes increasingly relevant. How are we to conceive of ourselves as selves on the Internet? Is there anything unique or special about the way in which we relate to ourselves in cyberspace?<p> Sherry Turkle answers this question affirmatively, arguing that the Internet is suggestive of a decentered theory of self which ought to make us reconsider our very notion of our identities. In chapter one, Turkles position is examined, and I argue that while her encompassing view on online identity presents some incredible insights, in the end it falls short because her argument draws a false conclusion.<p> In chapter two, Christine Korsgaards theory of practical identity is taken up as a means of addressing the weakness in Turkles theory and, at the same time, salvages the insights revealed in the first chapter.<p> With a theory of unified online identity established, in chapter three it is applied to both show its applicability to case studies and scenarios one may face as they traverse cyberspace, and to explain how it is we can understand our relation to our online selves in a deep sense.

People around the world are meeting in places that consist of little more than a touch of some hardware, a dash of electricity, and a pinch of code. As the Internet becomes increasingly incorporated into our lives the subject of online identity becomes increasingly relevant. How are we to conceive of ourselves as selves on the Internet? Is there anything unique or special about the way in which we relate to ourselves in cyberspace?<p> Sherry Turkle answers this question affirmatively, arguing that the Internet is suggestive of a decentered theory of self which ought to make us reconsider our very notion of our identities. In chapter one, Turkles position is examined, and I argue that while her encompassing view on online identity presents some incredible insights, in the end it falls short because her argument draws a false conclusion.<p> In chapter two, Christine Korsgaards theory of practical identity is taken up as a means of addressing the weakness in Turkles theory and, at the same time, salvages the insights revealed in the first chapter.<p> With a theory of unified online identity established, in chapter three it is applied to both show its applicability to case studies and scenarios one may face as they traverse cyberspace, and to explain how it is we can understand our relation to our online selves in a deep sense.

Networked Public Spaces: An Investigation into Virtual Embodiment is an exploration of issues surrounding networked public spaces in relation to three artworks created by the author between 1995 to 2000: Virtual Concrete, (1995); Bodies© Incorporated (1996-2000); and Datamining Bodies (initiated in 2000). All three works have several key things in common: each exists on the Internet; each is conceptually connected to the idea of online identity and virtual embodiment, and each required extensive research to inform and inspire the creative practice. The projects are presented within three main sections, each of which attempts to link personal experience and history to a larger cultural context within which the works were produced. The first section, "Breaking with Tradition," provides an overview of historical events that have influenced the changing relationship between artist and audience and argues that the foundations for networked art were laid largely by conceptual artists working during the 1960s and 1970s. The second section, "Distributed Identity," examines the emergence of identity in online public spaces, focusing specifically on issues surrounding the appropriation and use of the term "avatar," and the current cultural preoccupation with databasing and archiving. The third and final section, "Visualizing the Invisible," explores the various efforts to map cyberspace, particularly paying attention to the implicit intersection of network data visualisations and biological systems, and the popular trend toward developing more "intelligent" networks through use of autonomous agents.

K-pop throughout Asia and cause a new Korean wave in recent years, fans who adore K-pop idol has been gradually expanding and attracted much attention. You can see fans showing their fanatical behavior from the news reports. Fans use the Internet to quickly grasp the information, the e-community is the best platform for fans. Fan culture has become increasingly rich and diverse in the era of the Internet. This study tries to explore that fans how to interact with the Internet technology¡HAnd the Internet technology how to change the network relationship between the fans¡HIn this study, the data collected through participant observation and interviews with fans who adore K-pop idol. The result found that Internet is the best tools for fans, it can transmit and spread information. The Internet became a bridge which connecting fans around the world. Fans gathered together and collected resources to reach the goal, they also establish online identity based on their common e-community¡Bcommon experience instead of their background.

This dissertation was performed with the aim of understanding more about how people interact with and deceive one another in an online context. To build that understanding, the study was motivated by five research questions: (1) How do users experience the process of misrepresenting themselves to others? (2) How do users present themselves in online contexts in which they may not feel comfortable with portraying themselves fully? (3) How do perceived norms and expectations within groups inform users’ self-presentations? (4) How do users’ perceptions of who will view their information impact self-representation? (5) How do perceived affordances impact how users feel they can engage in deceptive practices? To explore and answer these questions, 27 interviews were conducted via the social networking platform Discord with members of the r/Fantasy server. The findings from the research show that how users perceive the potential audiences they have in a group setting is impacted by what they perceive the affordances of the platform to be. In turn, these perceptions influence what users care to share about themselves and how and if they engage in deceptive practices with other group members, both of which are also motivated by a desire to fit in and be accepted by the group at large. These findings provide insight into how users interact with and deceive one another, but also open up room for future research into the intersection of affordances and audiences and how users modify how they present themselves in relation to those perceived components of the online experience.

GIFs afford a great degree of personalization as they are often created from popular movie and video clips, with diverse and real characters, each expressing a nuanced affect state through a combination of characters' own unique bodily gesture and distinctive visual background. This highly personalized and embodied property gave us an unique window to explore how individuals represent and express themselves on social media, through the lens of GIFs they use. In this study, we explore how do Twitter users express their gender and racial identities through that of characters in gifs. We conducted a behavioral study (n=398) to simulate a series of tweeting and gif picking scenario and we found that gender and race identities have significant impact on users' choice of GIFs and that source familiarity and perceived audience also have significant impacts on whether a user will choose race and gender matching GIFs. / Master of Science / GIFs are one of most humorous material on the internet. People use GIFs on Twitter for public disclosure, on WhatsApp and iMessage for chatting with friends and groups. GIFs are often created from from popular movie and video clips, with diverse and real characters, each expressing a nuanced affect state through a combination of characters' own unique bodily gesture and distinctive visual background. This highly personalized property of GIFs gave us an unique window to explore how individuals represent and express themselves on social media, through the lens of GIFs they use. For instance, would you be more likely to use a GIF with a men character, if you are a women? In this study, we explore how do Twitter users express their gender and racial identities through that of characters in gifs. We conducted a behavioral study (n=398) to simulate a series of tweeting and gif picking scenario and we found that gender and race identities have significant impact on users' choice of GIFs and that source familiarity and perceived audience also have significant impacts on whether a user will choose race and gender matching GIFs.

The notions of community and identity are discussed and the various elements of each concept are analyzed in terms of their manifestation in physical and virtual spaces. A comparison of community and identity in physical and virtual spaces highlights the interdependent nature of these experiences in the intersection of these two spaces. Modern society functions through the use of technology that is ever increasing in speed and efficiency. We rely more and more on virtual technology as a tool to maintain relationships, perform various tasks, communicate and interact with others, and to manage our self-presentations. Thus, the fundamental experiences of community and identity must be studied in both online and offline contexts in order to determine how we can manipulate our use of technology for positive outcomes.

Girl gamers, while a substantial part of the gaming population, are often largely ignored in both the gaming industry and academic literature. In particular, there have been few investigations to date on what comprises the identity of a girl gamer, particularly outside the context of gameplay. To that end, the current study aims to investigate how girl gamers enact their identities as girl gamers on Twitter, a social network site. Eight Twitter accounts whose users self-identified as either Gamer Girls or Girl Gamers on a Twitter user directory where identified and the profiles and tweets of each collected for a two week period. This data was then analyzed according to Hecht’s communication theory of identity in order to determine how girl gamers enact their identity in an online context.

Telecommunication systems have evolved significantly and the recent convergence of telephony allows users to communicate through landlines, mobile phones and Voice over IP (VoIP) phones. Unfortunately this convergence has resulted in easy manipulation of caller identity, resulting in both VoIP spam and Caller ID spoofing. In this dissertation, we introduce the notion of effective identity which is a combination of mechanisms to (1) establish identity of the caller that is harder to manipulate, and (2) provide additional information about the caller. We first use effective identities to address the VoIP spam problem by proposing CallRank, a novel mechanism built around call duration and social network linkages to differentiate between a legitimate user and a spammer. To ensure that this mechanism is privacy preserving, we create a token framework that allows a user to prove the existence of a social network path between him and the user he is trying to initiate contact with, without actually revealing the path. We then look at the broader issue of determining identity across the entire telecommunication landscape to address Caller ID spoofing. Towards this, we develop PinDr0p, a technique to determine the provenance of a call - the source and the path taken by a call. In the absence of any verifiable metadata, provenance offers a means of uniquely identifying a call source. Finally, we use anomalies in timbre to develop London Calling, a mechanism to identify geography of a caller. Together, the contributions made in this dissertation create effective identities that can help address the new threats in a converged telecommunication infrastructure.

Girl gamers, while a substantial part of the gaming population, are often largely ignored in both the gaming industry and academic literature. In particular, there have been few investigations to date on what comprises the identity of a girl gamer, particularly outside the context of gameplay. To that end, the current study aims to investigate how girl gamers enact their identities as girl gamers on Twitter, a social network site. Eight Twitter accounts whose users self-identified as either Gamer Girls or Girl Gamers on a Twitter user directory where identified and the profiles and tweets of each collected for a two week period. This data was then analyzed according to Hecht’s communication theory of identity in order to determine how girl gamers enact their identity in an online context.