Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

in or out? How does this impact your ability to understand the other person?
Have you ever violated netiquette while interacting with other people? What
happened? How did other people react?
Take a few minutes to Google yourself and see what information is easily available
about you on the Internet. You may need to try a couple of variations of your name
and even add your hometown if your name is very common. If you find information
about yourself, how could a potential employer react to that information? Do you
need to clean up your Internet profile? Why?
12.3 Taking the Self Online
Learning
Explain Erik Erikson’s conceptualization of identity.
online identities.
3. Discuss the three types of online identities described by Andrew
Outcomes1.
F. Wood and Matthew J. Smith.
In Chapter 3, we discussed the world of intrapersonal communication. At the beginning of Chapter
3 chapter, we had you describe yourself by answering the question, “Who am I?” 20 different times.
Look back at that list. Now, think about yourself in the CMC context. Are you the same person in a
FtF interaction as you are in a CMC interaction? Maybe, but maybe not. For example, maybe you’re
a very shy person in FtF interactions, and likewise you have problems talking with complete strangers
online. However, maybe you’re a very quiet person in FtF interactions, but when you’re playing World
of Warcraft, you suddenly become very loud and boisterous. One of the beautiful things about CMC
for many people is that they can be almost anyone or anything they want to be online. In this section,
we’re going to examine some specific factors related to one’s online self: identity, personality traits,
communication traits, privacy, anonymity, and trust.
Many social psychologists over the years have attempted to define and conceptualize what is meant
by the term “identity.” One of the more prominent contributors to this endeavor was Erik Erikson.
Erikson believed that an individual’s identity was developed through a series of stages of psychosocial
development that occur from infancy to adulthood. At each of the different stages, an individual
faces various crises that will influence her/his/their identity positively or negatively. Each crisis pits the
psychological needs of the individual against the larger needs of society, which is why these crises are
psychosocial in nature. You can see these stages, the crises that occur, the basic virtues associated with the
crises, and the central question that is asked at each stage in Figure 12.8. 37
Our question then, is how does technology impact an individual’s identity development? To answer
this question, we need to understand Erikson’s concept of “pseudospeciation,” or the tendency of
humans to try to differentiate themselves from other humans. 38 Basically, we create in-groups (groups to
which we belong) and out-groups (groups to which we do not belong). As Erikson explained, humans
Interpersonal Communication 426