Children who have grown up with the Internet as a dominant form of cultural production bring to their identity development a complex and unique set of expectations and assumptions about identity fluidity and presentation. In addition, these "cyberchildren" are spending much of their social-interaction time in environments populated and controlled by adults, and yet beyond the purview or authority of the adults in their "real" lives. Understanding the nature of their identity development in virtual spaces and its implications for their real-world behaviors offers new opportunities for interventions that more effectively empower children to navigate and negotiate their experiences in relationship with online audiences. The study proposes that Goffman's dramaturgical metaphor can be productively applied to cyberspace, where children are rehearsing their identity performances in backstage, virtual environments; transferring their most salient and valuable identities to middle-stage spaces in real life, where they are performed for their peers and friends; and finally adopting them for presentation in front-stage, public spheres. The work draws on sociological interaction, dramaturgical analysis, information flow theory, and cyberstudies theory to propose a new theoretical framework. Its mixed-methodology approach incorporates a quantitative online survey, including benchmark questions drawn from three national surveys, and open-ended questions analyzed through qualitative methodologies. Taken together, the results confirmed the author's hypotheses that: (1) Cyberchildren have access to adult information and situations; (2) Traditional interventions to protect children in cyberspace are largely ineffective; (3) Cyberchildren maintain distinct online and real-life identities; and (4) Cyberchildren perceive of their virtual identities as valuable and salient.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.100647 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Lynch, Dianne. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Art History and Communication Studies.) |
| Rights | © Dianne Lynch, 2005 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002495102, proquestno: AAINR25199, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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