As individuals join groups and social networking sites on the Internet, people are becoming more closely connected then ever before, causing conformity in some aspects but also creating new ways for individuals to express their unique identity. It does not have to be looked at in either a good or a bad way, but rather as the next step in the process of evolution of humanity and our society.
Because the Internet is still a relatively new and constantly developing innovation, people will always continue to question its impact on both the individuals and the society as a whole. Before the Internet and Web 2.0, groups and social organizations existed only in real, concrete, tangible life. People could argue how even these networks of people in real life cause conformity and loss of personal identity, causing members to become a part of one collective organism. However, this is the way society works, have always worked, and inevitably will always work.
Before Facebook, before the Internet, and before advanced technology, in the 1800s, August Comte, who was both a philosopher and a sociologist, compared society to a “collective organism.” A collective organism is an organism made up of many organs or parts. Thus, with society as the collective organism, each individual is an organ that must interact, work together, and influence each other in order to create a society. Comte also added that man is not the only type of organ that makes up society but also aspects such as knowledge, cultural ideas and ideals, generations, and values help to create the collective organism of society. Comte believed that, “man exists as man only by participation in the life of humanity” which means that individuals and society will always naturally be tied together. By recognizing Comte’s beliefs from the 1800s, we see that individuals have always been members of a whole and that this is not some negative new occurrence that the Internet has brought about. Social groups with a high influence on its members have always been around.
Because these social groups and networks now exist on the Internet, interconnection has been hyper-activated. There is a greater and faster flow of information that is being spread to more and more people. This adds so many more ideas, thoughts, creativity, and productions to not only cyber world, but the real world as well, that while in some aspects individuals seem to be conforming. But in other ways, individuals are expanding and extending their identities. Even with sites such as Facebook, although all users have to stick to the same exact layout, there are still so many ways to remain an individual. There are multiple sections where users can write about themselves, their interests, favorite quotations, etc. Each user can upload personal photos to which they can add captions and users can “like” different pages as well. Finally, with status updates, users can individualize themselves by writing whatever they want, their “reflection”—something they are currently doing, something they are thinking, a quote, a joke, an opinion on a current event or politics; they could post a link of a picture, a song, a video, a personal blog, or any other website.
In the documentary, A Digital Nation, it shows how the Internet is highly used all over the world. In South Korea, Internet addiction is so bad that Internet Recovery Camps have been created to rehabilitate teenagers who have disengaged from the real world due to overuse of the online world. Internet Cafes also exist in Korea in which rows and rows of computers are constantly in use 24/7 by mostly teenagers playing online games. Although these aren’t the typical online groups such as Facebook, so many teens are being sucked into the cookie cutter stereotype of a gamer. They have conformed to this sense of only feeling the need to interact with each other through cyber space. In the real world to an observer, each gamer seems like the same exact person who sits at the computer and stares at the screen for hours, expressionless, and merely clicking and pressing buttons. However, in the online world for these gamers, each player has a different persona, each player has a different mindset, different tactics and techniques, and a different perception. In some games, gamers are even able to design what their online player looks from skin color, to eye color, to height. Thus, although an individual’s personal identity seems to be stripped of personal traits while entranced by online games, each gamer still holds an identity in cyber world.
Digital Nation also explained that cyberspace players/characters are used in the professional workplace as well. Instead of flying halfway across the globe for a conference, professionals can now meet online and hold a meeting in a digitally created office. Each person creates an online character that replicates themselves, down to facial features and even a particular outfit. This shows how Internet users are not always surrendering their personal identity but instead just transferring it into cyber world.
In the documentary, a computer expert explained that altering one’s height in cyber world could impact his ability to make business deals in the real world. For example if a man’s height in real life were 5’7’’, he could alter his online character to make him appear 6 feet—taller than his opponent. Because he is taller he seems more dominant and more intimidating, helping him to win the business negotiation. Then when the two meet in person, even though the man is actually shorter than his opponent, he will still be the successful one of the business deal because of the impressions made during the previous online experience. This is an innovative way of how people can not only expand and extend their identity but also alter it, with the help of the Internet.
Therefore, I believe that online social networking sites connect people and force them to conform in certain ways, yet because the Internet is so dynamic, I don’t think users should feel the loss of ego or personal space. There are so many new ways in which people can express their identity and through so many different mediums. However, just the fact that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to join online social groups and get as much use out of the Internet as possible, shows conformity. Conformity and society is a natural part of life. Without the Internet, people were already participating as members of a collective organism. And now with the Internet, these members have become hyper-activated. It’s just the next step in the process of evolution of humanity; each member of the collective organism and the collective organism as a whole will learn to and be forced to adapt to this natural change.
Rushkoff and Dretzin's Digital Nation
