How are Communication Technologies changing our Personal or Cultural Identity?

The "Ignorance Explosion"

• Is there too much disconnected information?
• Power comes from those who can put information together.

The "Saturated Self" (Gergen Reading)

• Looks historically at the explosion of 'relationships.' From an era where we met a few strangers (1900), to some outsiders (1950s), to an explosion of outside connections (1990s).
• Are we spread too thin?- The downside of the communication revolution?
• Is the 'self' changing? Becoming relational, rather than intense (Romantic) or pure (Modernist)?

The "Multiple Self"

• The disconnection of social 'frames' can lead to a disconnection of selves
• The anonymous online self- who can we be when there are online and can assume new disguises? What does this do to trust?
• Rise of 'multiple personality disorders' (MPD)

Cultural Identity in an Era of Global Cultural Flows

• Who or where do we identify with? - 'US', 'Texas', 'Austin', 'Hyde Park Neighborhood'? Ireland, West Ireland, Donegal?
• When should a separate identity become a separate place?
• Nostalgia for the integral place - or the growth of terrorism among 'expatriates.' 'spatial fundamentalism'
• Sub-cultures emerging in an era of shared media and shared space
• Sub-cultures emerging with cheaper communication tools to individuate and develop their own identity