Coffee with Brad today. We were talking about a whole bunch of things (soon to be blogged). Brad asked me why people would expose themselves on things like Facebook & MySpace. Two thoughts came to mind:
1. Pay to play. If you want to intereact with others in this environment then you have to give something in return. And is often information about yourself. You can keep yourself hidden but are you willing to pay the opportunity costs for doing so?
2. The identity arms race. If we do not shape our public identities then others shape them for us. Therefore we are engaged in a constant struggle to constitute ourselves. Arms races are driven by competition and technological innovation. We have a whole bunch of new technologies that are driving an arms race of online identity creation ("Facebook, Twitter, blog, Second Life").
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1 comment:
Matt,
Always great to chat and discuss things with you. I love the arms race metaphor. Like an arms race, it's difficult to stay neutral and on the sideline in the digital world without feeling the pressure to join the explosion. That may also have a bearing on the pervasive need to establish online identity.
Regards,
Brad
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