| This qualitative, ethnographical study of cyberculture explored the psychological aspects of online identity construct and fragmentation relative to immersion in the online environment of the World Wide Web. A grounded theory analysis of virtual immersiveness, trust, anonymity, control, privacy, and renegotiation of public and private boundaries between offline and online worlds explored the implications of identity navigation and control through online interactivity. Analysis of data provided by 25 study participants, 12 identity compromise and theft victims, and 13 heavily immersed online users from diverse age groups, professions and academic backgrounds, provided valuable insight into how the renegotiation of boundaries in the online environment causes a shift in identity construct. This study allowed access to the context in which online lives are produced, to lived experience and to living experience, in order to observe what it feels like to live certain experiences of digital multimedia from the inside, and to occupy compromised and noncompromised identity positions within the micro-power dynamics of technology-rich environments. Studies were based on the psychological aspects of identity construction, cyberculture via constructivist theories, technical aspects of the Web interface, and issues of anonymity, identity compromise, online illusion and identity fragmentation. Given the significant amount of people who socialize and exchange dialogue via cyberspace, an examination of self-identity relative to illusory virtual anonymity and trust may provide valuable insight into ways persons can protect themselves from a loss or shift in self-identity, and/or a loss of control of identity due to the renegotiation of boundaries that the online interface promulgates. |
