some ideas that came out of my abstract musings

Why do people deliberately shed the ties and links to their traditional "identity" in favor of creating an identity that essentially exists in a vacuum for an assumed limited amount of time? Anonymity in the past has been used to preserve the purity of artistic perspective, to publish ‘unfavorable’ or inflammatory opinions, or to merely hide the identity of the writer. The internet has allowed anonymity to be accessed by anyone with an ISP. The facility of adopting anonymity has created entirely new communities and groups on the internet that are bound or freed by their very lack of ‘nonymity’. How does this change how people view morality? Do they still hold to their society's moral code, or do they abandon it? Do they embrace hypocrisy; do they try to make the world better?

The very idea of anonymity eliminates most types of accountability that society might ascribe to any actions or ideas posted or taken by anons, which many feel creates an incredibly corrosive, an incredibly dangerous situation for the health of society as we, as humans, have known of it for generations. However, we have seen anonymity take off and flourish in many different directions. PostSecret and Anonymous/4chan/etc seem to be different sides of the same coin. One tends to use anonymity to share, comfort, create community while Anonymous tries to act as a pseudo-vigilante and as a somewhat sophomoric hedonist who derives pleasure from the plight of or attack on others, and also to create a group (if not a community). Both are made up almost entirely of people who choose to create an anonymous identity and then to create ties and links to other “anons” via either PostSecret or 4chan type of sites. The fascinating thing is that their anonymity has allowed them to create any identity they wish, yet they still seek some sort of community.

Anonymity has distinct power in generating an identity completely other and mostly divorced from the "real" identity of the person - in fact, some people call their "anonymous" or adopted personas as more real than their originals... Often the adopted personas become an exaggerated form of a facet of the physical person’s named identity and character, exploring the feelings or desires of one aspect of the personality. The more extreme versions of this have been publically vilified and fear-mongers on FOX news and other “media” sources have pointed fingers at groups like Anonymous and at anonymity over the internet as a whole. I tend to believe that you cannot completely vilify any group entirely; everything is shades of gray and Anons are no where near the darkest part of the spectrum….


Interesting quotation from the beginning of a paper:
“Early research on online self-presentation mostly focused on identity constructions in anonymous online environments. Such studies found that individuals tended to engage in role-play games and anti-normative behaviors in the online world. More recent studies have examined identity performance in less anonymous online settings such as Internet dating sites and reported different findings. The present study investigates identity construction on Facebook, a newly emerged nonymous online environment. Based on content analysis of 63 Facebook accounts, we find that the identities produced in this nonymous environment differ from those constructed in the anonymous online environments previously reported. Facebook users predominantly claim their identities implicitly rather than explicitly; they "show rather than tell" and stress group and consumer identities over personally narrated ones.”

Also, the idea that the internet is ephemeral creates, perhaps, a feeling of inability to connect with others or that of anomie may instigate things like “trolling” or behavior that seeks to evoke any kind of reaction in order to somehow confirm/affirm the existence of the person.

Potential Project Abstract...

This project seeks to look at how anonymity is used over the internet to create an identity and then how that separate identity allows the person behind the anonymous persona to divorce themselves from their particular society’s normative values. The idea of anonymity over the internet has generated much furor and many believe that the so-called lack of accountability granted by that anonymity will have an incredibly destructive effect on society. However, anonymity allows the user to create a persona that reflects ideas or feelings that he or she may not feel comfortable expressing whilst constrained by the social mores of his/her physical community. The different reasons behind the decision to be anonymous have even been seen to create new communities and groups over the internet; PostSecret has become a place for people to express their secrets anonymously and potentially to prevent suicide and feelings of anomie while anons seeking to change society or to mock it (vigillanteism vs. the “lulz”) seem to gravitate to Anonymous. Looking at previous studies of anonymity, collective identity, and the internet phenomena of PostSecret, 4chan, and Anonymous (to give a few examples), this project will attempt to address how anonymity is allowing people to create new identities, identities that have a social disconnect from traditional views of morality or ‘moral rectitude’, and thus allows for, perhaps, a more honest form of reflection on the self and on society. Whether this will cause creative destruction of both, or simply devolution into chaos and moral abyss, is another avenue that will be explored.

the embedded video-magic

"Identity through Anonymity" using Tryad's music



"Identity through Anonymity" using Grace Valhalla's music

First Video!!!!!!!

WOOHOOO!!!!! After hours upon hours of computer struggles, climbing from the abyss of technological lack of knowledge, and with copious help from friends, my first video is completed! I have semi-conquered Vegas and have uploaded my first YouTube video! In the words of Larry Lessig, I have entered back into the realm of the "RWs - the read-writers" as opposed to merely being an "RO - a read-only". This is so exciting!

The video was actually really fun to make once the initial 2 hour struggle to learn how to splice and dice videos on Vegas was over. I'm stoked about it! I even have two versions of the same movie! I liked it so much that I had to try two separate music tracks in the background. If anybody is reading this - WATCH THEM!! They're pretty cool... (maybe not, but I'm still excited!) and then leave me comments, critiques, criticisms, and/or suggestions for improvement (if you feel so inclined...).

Two Editions -
Identity through Anonymity using music from Tryad called "Alone"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI38OgNYnxs

Identity through Anonymity using music from Grace Valhalla called "summerCamp"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AuPQDEuPMs

If you don't want a link - the videos can both be found under "Identity through Anonymity" on YouTube. As I start my research, I was intrigued by the reasons behind anonymity. Why do people deliberately shed the ties and links to their traditional "identity" in favor of creating an identity that essentially exists in a vacuum for an assumed limited amount of time. How does this change how people view morality? Do they still hold to their society's moral code, or do they abandon it? Do they embrace hypocrisy, do they try to make the world better? SecretPost and Anonymous/4chan/etc seem to be different sides of the same coin. One tends to use anonymity to share, comfort, create community while Anonymous tries to act as a pseudo-vigilante and as a somewhat sophomoric hedonist who derives pleasure from the plight of or attack on others, and also to create a group (if not a community). Just some thoughts...

I tried to use the connection to the black and white movie "The Invisible Man" in conjunction with clips attributed to Anonymous members to emphasize the idea of anonymity, of the power that anonymity has in generating an identity completely other and mostly divorced from the "real" identity of the person - in fact, some people call their "anonymous" or adopted personas as more real than their originals... I was wondering if perhaps there were correlations to the pursuit of anonymity to other cultures who have "true names" or who delay naming children until they begin to develop distinctly discernible personalities?

My First Post!!!!!

Hello to all. This is the beginning of the voyage to anonymity... understanding, that is.
We had our first Digital Ethnography class today, discussing anonymity and the course of our course. Discussing the subject matter, I was interested in the history of anonymity as an idea and then how anonymity has changed and perhaps become more accessible with the advent of the internet. In coffee shop discussions, Plato and his idea of the ring of Gyges was mentioned (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Gyges). This parable tells of a magical ring that turns its wearers invisible and how the invisibility, the anonymity if you will, made it impossible for the wearers to adhere to the code of moral conduct espoused by their cultures. This could then be linked to more modern tales like Tolkien's series with the 'one ring' turning its wearers invisible and The Invisible Man (where the invisible, anonymous central character commits horrible crimes and is completely unaccountable. Other ideas tossed around were from V for Vendetta, pseudonyms, and pen names (Ben Franklin, Samuel Clemens, etc.). Throughout history, people have assumed "false" names, guises, masks, and dreamed of what they could do with invisibility or complete anonymity.
Now with anonymity even more accessible, how has the idea of being anonymous changed? How is it used? Through RPGs, Anonymous (the group), hate mail, love mail, videos, blogs, and everything else, are we seeing a polarization of identity via the internet? With a fascination with "efame", so-called every-day people can become internet stars via youtube or post themselves via media like Facebook and Myspace. At the other end of the spectrum are the ones who choose to remain anonymous. Those who do not espouse their legal names over the internet and either act alone or in a group with the assumption of anonymity...

So, that's basically where my meandering thoughts have left me at the moment. More to come sooner rather than later.