In her book, Life on Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, author Sherry Turkle explains the effect technology has on the way individuals view themselves, and how this relates to the growth of postmodernist thinking. According to Turkle, the rapid expansion of network technology, specifically the Internet, is responsible for introducing millions of people to new spaces and ways of interactivity with one another. This revolutionary method for relating to others is swiftly changing how we view our minds, our sexual interactions, the forms of our communities, and even our own identities (Turkle 9). In the excerpts selected for our class reading, Turkle cites Internet communication technology such as chat rooms, MUDs (Multi-User Domains) and IRC (Internet Relay Chat) as the basis for the further exploration of our identities because, "it is on the Internet that our confrontations with technology as it collides with our sense of human identity are fresh, even raw. In the real-time communities of cyber space, we are dwellers on the threshold between the real and virtual, unsure of our footing, inventing ourselves as we go along" (Turkle 10). As we invent new identities in order to harmonize with the changing frontiers of technology and society, our culture moves from the modernist idea of calculation to a postmodern concept of simulation (Turkle 20). To understand the difference between the postmodernist impact on contemporary thought as opposed to the modernist view, it is important to hold a basic understanding of both ideas.
Modernist thought is difficult to accurately define - the gradual evolution of philosophy makes it hard to determine how long modernism has existed, and its wide-sweeping effects on everything from architecture to literature creates a large assortment of modernist definitions from which to choose. In its most basic form, however, modernism can be most closely associated with the traditional world-view dominant since the Enlightenment, and is described in terms of linearity, logicality, and hierarchical thought (Turkle 17). Modernist reality is perceived as definitive and objective, defined by a firm set of rules and roles that support a centralized narrative, or concept of truth. In this philosophy, the self is characterized as a solid autonomous being, our most basic reality, making it simple to identify and resist any departure from society's definition of normalcy (Turkle 261).
Within the last forty years, a poststructuralist response developed to the modernist ideology and gained the official academic title, postmodernism. This philosophy serves as a direct contrast to modernism, embracing the idea of a decentered, multi-faceted self that consists of fragmented but coherent parts. There is no definitive truth to these interconnections, making reality and human identity fluid and capable of transitioning between numerous nonlinear concepts (Turkle 17). In postmodern reality, disjointed ideas receive meaning through their relationships to each other; the presence of thought becoming just as significant as what is noticeably lacking. The multiplicity of meaning and truth in the postmodern environment makes identity opaque, allusive, and dense, but also presents the opportunity for remarkable diversity.
In the realm of technology, modernist thinking presented computers in the late 70's as a tool that represented clear or transparent thought, constructed to perform simple and rigid sets of rules called "programs". These new systems "invited users to imagine that they could understand [the computer's] 'gears' as it turned, even if very few people ever tried to reach that level of understanding" (Turkle 23). Computer scientists influenced by modernist thinking encouraged people to view their systems as oversized calculators, able to aid us in the understanding of problems, regardless of how complicated. It was only necessary to dissect the logical systems of the computer in order to understand otherwise complex theories of technology, economics, and even social life. Turkle titles these types of beliefs as "the essence of that I shall be calling the modernist computational aesthetic" (Turkle 18). The modern computational aesthetic encouraged the majority of technical professionals to view the advancement of technology as a way to clarify and condense diffuse ideas.
As technology evolved over the next two decades, interfaces were developed that made it possible for computer users to become less involved with the mechanics of their machines, and more focused on performing activities on a surface level. Technology professionals created a system of small clickable pictures, or icons, to represent the functions and commands occurring inside the machine. The traditional concept of the physical desktop, a study area filled with files, drawers, and work tools, was replaced by a virtual desktop that allowed users to scroll more efficiently between electronic folders, trashcans, paint canvases, and typewriters. People grew gradually more comfortable with the user-friendly graphical interfaces and found the convenience of technology preferable to the standard methods of work. As the culture became content with "substituting representations of reality for the real" (Turkle 23), the "boundaries between the real and the virtual, the animate and the inanimate, the unitary and the multiple self" began to slowly erode (Turkle 10), causing an extensive reinvestigation of personal identity. Computer users became more interested in the idea of personal computers as navigational and interactive, ushering culture away from modernist calculation toward a postmodern culture of simulation.
Two of the most important innovations - the windows computer interface and Internet chat - were pivotal in the movement towards "heightening and concretizing the postmodern experience" (Turkle 18). The development of windows, a series of boxed off areas on the computer screen, were originally motivated by a desire to create a more effective working environment. Users cycled through applications quickly and efficiently, placing themselves in several contexts at the same time. Although users are focused on one window at a time, they are often mentally present in all the windows at all times, enacting multiple tasks almost simultaneously. Windows integrated the normal human practice of playing different roles in different settings into its basic technology, but its speed and accuracy led users into the more complicated view of a decentralized being. Through the mechanical innovation of windows, humans became capable of performing multiple and concurrent roles, making windows a "powerful metaphor for thinking about the self as a multiple, distributed system" (Turkle 14). This is especially apparent when applied to the world of Internet chat.
Communication technology like MUDs and IRC are a more "dramatic [example] of how computer mediated communication can serve as a place for the construction and reconstruction of identity" (Turkle 14). With chat interfaces, people can connect to a central server containing a text-based interface. Once linked to this server, users can type to each other from their personal computers in real time, exchanging ideas with each other in a space free of visual cues and constraints. Internet chat's anonymity encourages its participants to construct new selves through social interaction; the privacy of MUDs and IRCs permitted the possibility of new identities, imaginative scenarios, and fabricated environments not available in real life. In this atmosphere, "the self is constructed and the rules of social interaction are built, not received" (Turkle 10). The introduction of this realm into society gave people the chance to play with their notions of identity, discard those ideas that did not correspond, and adopt those aspects of personality that endorsed a multiple and fluid conception of self.
Windows software further encouraged this new outlook with its ability to alternate between screen shots. After the invention of several identities, chat users could use windows to cycle through their various realities, experiencing multiple scenarios at the same time. The possibilities for identity in technological communities often rival reality, causing a great debate between what is real life and what is considered computer simulation. After all, most chat users argue, "why grant such superior status to the self that has the body when the selves that don't have bodies are able to have different kinds of experiences?" (Turkle 14). The technological culture of simulation is gradually affecting the way we view our minds as well as our bodies, and a majority of mainstream computer programs are designed with this postmodern influence in mind. Rather than expecting to program aptitude directly into their computers, programmers now believe it is the interaction of smaller subprograms to each other that can create a greater intelligence. The relation of these programs to each other may become too complex to properly define or completely understand, but so are our brains - and this never prevented them from functioning competently (Turkle 20).
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