Mobile Technologies and Boundaryless Spaces: Slavish Lifestyles, Seductive Meanderings, or Creative Empowerment?

According to the instrumental theory of technology, mobile technologies - what McLuhan\u27s refers to as electronic prostheses - promise opportunities for greater freedom, creativity, leisure, and productivity by enhancing organic bodily functions. Correspondingly, as (Cavallaro, 2000) would argue, objects such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable physiotherapy units, laptops, and portable stereos - to name just a few - seem to impart a sense of solidity to consumers\u27 lives. Just like prostheses, they are inserted into our everyday lives, helping our inadequate bodies along in fulfilling practical tasks. Phenomenologically, these kinds of mobile technologies supposedly support the subject\u27s sense of ontological completeness and security. On the other hand the substantial theory of technology draws together less optimistic commentators. Among a host of other things, they stress the panoptic nature of new information and communication technologies (Clarke, 1994; Marx, 1999; Poster, 1995; Webster, 1995). The emphasis in these accounts is on the potential for surveillance and monitoring that these technologies place in the hands of the powerful. Mobile technologies according to this view is but the latest incarnation of capitalist (the Marxist view) or state (the libertarian view) power and control fantasies. Far from empowered and freed, the subject becomes captured and enslaved by these mobile communication devices. Phenomenologically, the networked worker and consumer subject is the disciplined and docile slave of the information matrix

Anonymity in online discussion forums - does it promote connections?

This paper reports on a study of pre-registration undergraduate nursing and midwifery students' perceptions of the facility to post and read anonymous messages in closed-member University-hosted online forums. Two online focus groups and seven semi-structured interviews were conducted. Nine themes were identified, revealing wide contrasts between students' experience, understanding of and ability to use online anonymity. While the benefits of anonymity were accepted, most interviewees feared the clumsily-worded anonymous comments which so easily spark unpleasant exchanges. Allowing anonymity may open the forum up to these problems, especially considering, from a digital literacies perspective, that the students have such varied backgrounds. But allowing anonymity brings an online forum closer in resemblance to those outside university, i.e. which provided an authentic site for the more experienced students to gain their digital literacy. With clarity in the degree of anonymity, and sensitive moderation of errant messages, allowing the anonymous option could help less digitally experienced students catch up with their peers who cannot do without it

Moving beyond Goffman: the performativity of anonymity on SNS

Purpose: This paper explores consumer behaviour on the popular anonymous social networking site (SNS) Yik Yak. It examines the reasons behind the turn to anonymous social networking and also considers the ways in which anonymity impacts consumers' self-performances on SNS. Design/methodology/approach: The study used a netnographic approach to explore Yik Yak across eight universities in Ireland and the UK. Data are based on observation and participation on the app. Screenshots on smart phones were the central method used to collect data. Data also included twelve in-depth interviews. Findings: Young consumers are becoming fatigued by the negative effects of self-presentation on many SNS. By enabling consumers to engage in what they consider to be more authentic modes of being and interaction, Yik Yak provides respite from these pressures. Through the structures of its design, Yik Yak enables consumers to realise self-authentication in anonymised self-performances that engender a sense of virtue and social connection. Originality/value: By invoking a performative lens, this paper extends a novel theoretical approach to understandings of identity formation within consumer research. Highlighting anonymity as a dynamic process of socio- material enactments, the study reveals how consumers' self-performances are brought into effect through the citation of various discursive arrangements, which promulgate distinct understandings of authenticity. Practical implications: This research highlights the potential value of anonymous SNS in fostering supportive dialogue, concerning mental health amongst post-millennials

Qualifying the Value of Anonymous and Psuedonymous Communication in an Online Social Network

A survey of users of a forum style online social network aimed to evaluate their preference to communicate by pseudonym or anonymously. Priority survey areas were user's value judgments of both communication spaces, motivation to protect offline identity, motivation to protect online identity, and tendency to act in insincere ways online. Findings were that user's felt more uniformly positive about anonymous communication but did not prefer pseudonymous communication. Regarding motivations, users cite protection of offline identity and selective management of online persona as a reason to choose anonymous communication. Finally, the presence of purposely insincere communicants did not guarantee a greater use of anonymous or pseudonymous communications

"We are Anonymous." Anonymity in the Public Sphere – Challenges of Free and Open Communication

Anonymity, the stealth mode of public communication, challenges different actors who deal with freedom of communication issues in their day to day life – be it professional journalists, information and communication scientists, technicians or political activists. This article aims to deliver theoretical background on the concept of anonymity on the macro-level, as well as to shed light on how different communicators deal with anonymity on the micro-level. Based on the example of the Anonymous movement, communicative actions are put in relation to media technological artifacts and their surrounding media environment with a focus on journalistic practice and public response to the phenomenon. The analysis concludes with the need for a preservation of options for anonymous public communication as a dimension of freedom of communication after carefully considering both the advantages and the potential risks connected to that mode of private-public communication

Identity Management in Information Age Government: Exploring Concepts, Definitions, Approaches and Solutions

Our research question is the following: What could be a useful working definition of Identity Management in government at present? a) What are conceptualisations, definitions and approaches of IDM in government according to academic literature? b) Which e-authentication solutions have been developed in other jurisdictions

Anonymity in the Internet environment

Předložená bakalářská práce se zabývá současným stavem anonymity v prostředí internetu a jejím historickým vývojem. Teoretickou část zakončuje srovnání anonymity a identity v internetovém prostředí, doplněné o motivaci samotných uživatelů k využívání reálné identity na straně jedné a anonymity na straně druhé. Dále práce analyzuje v současné době používané identifikační technologie v porovnání s nástroji pro zachování si anonymity na internetu. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)This bachelor thesis deals with the current state of anonymity in the Internet environment and its historical development. The theoretical part is topped with the comparsion of anonymity and identity in the online environment, complemented by the users themselves showing theirs motivation to use real identity on the one hand and anonymity on the other. Further analyzes currently used identification technology compared with the tools for maintaining the anonymity on the Internet. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)Ústav informačních studií a knihovnictvíInstitute of Information Studies and LibrarianshipFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult

Influence of Feedback and Comment Labels on Information Sharing in a Computer Mediated Collaborative Environment

A group support system (GSS) uses a combination of networked personal computers, software, and human facilitation to improve the group decision-making process. Group support Systems are being used in the Air Force today in a variety of capacities and in particular by the Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center (WR-ALC) to assess acquisition risks. Prior GSS research has found that certain structural and social dimensions of GSS designs might influence whether optimal process improvements take place. However, the dimensions that positively influence group performance have continued to be a matter of debate. This thesis looked at several structural and social contingencies to explore possible explanations for the mixed results found in GSS research. The study examined the effect of: anonymity, identification, self-regulation, and facilitator provided feedback on user information sharing behavior, quality of the group decision, unequal participation among group members, and user attitudes with the GSS meeting. The results of the study indicated that the anonymity theory was partially supported since users in an anonymous condition provided more intellective comments than any other condition. In addition, the self-regulation theory was partially supported since users were found to have more satisfaction with the GSS meeting in this treatment

O anonimato online enquanto instrumento de inclusão jurídico-política : uma análise a partir da Teoria dos Sistemas Sociais

Dissertação (mestrado) — Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Direito, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito, 2022.O anonimato dispõe de uma natureza ambivalente: por um lado, ele favorece a prática de delitos; por outro, assegura o exercício de direitos. Sem negar a sua dimensão socialmente negativa, a presente dissertação tem como objetivo discutir de que forma e em que medida o recurso do anonimato online revela-se capaz de viabilizar a manifestação de dissidências políticas e a concretização jurídica de normas de direitos humanos e fundamentais. Em uma perspectiva ampla e interdisciplinar, pretende-se demonstrar, com esteio no paradigma sistêmico luhmanniano e com suporte em referências empíricas, que o estado anônimo pode contribuir para a efetivação do direito fundamental à privacidade em uma chamada “modernidade democrática” e concorrer para a inclusão política e/ou jurídica de pessoas na “modernidade autocrática”.Anonymity has an ambivalent nature: on one hand, it favors the commission of crimes; on the other, it ensures the exercise of rights. Without denying its socially negative dimension, this dissertation aims to discuss how and to what extent the resource of online anonymity is able to enable the manifestation of political dissent and the legal enforcement of human and fundamental rights norms. In a broad and interdisciplinary perspective, it is intended to demonstrate, based on the Luhmannian systemic paradigm and supported by empirical references, that the anonymous state can contribute to the realization of the fundamental right to privacy in a so-called "democratic modernity" and contribute to the political and/or legal inclusion of people in "autocratic modernity"