Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online

Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography

by Anna Poletti (Editor), Julie Rak (Editor)

Identity Technologies is a substantial contribution to the fields of autobiography studies, digital studies, and new media studies, exploring the many new modes of self-expression and self-fashioning that have arisen in conjunction with Web 2.0, social networking, and the increasing saturation of wireless communication devices in everyday life.
            This volume explores the various ways that individuals construct their identities on the Internet and offers historical perspectives on ways that technologies intersect with identity creation. Bringing together scholarship about the construction of the self by new and established authors from the fields of digital media and auto/biography studies, Identity Technologies presents new case studies and fresh theoretical questions emphasizing the methodological challenges inherent in scholarly attempts to account for and analyze the rise of identity technologies. The collection also includes an interview with Lauren Berlant on her use of blogs as research and writing tools.

Genres: Social Media, Science, Sociology, Research

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Kieran Darnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lol to the 2014 review saying everything included is intuitive… maybe back then, but now we’re lost in the cybersauce I’m afraid. Certainly interesting to read a critical text from the early days of Facebook, when it only had 750 million users (2011), now in 2025!

[loafingcactus · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is nothing wrong with the book in terms of being counter-factual, I'm just not able to imagine who would benefit from reading it.

If you were totally ignorant of the sociology of the internet, the book not only wouldn't be helpful in a how-to way, but I'm also not sure it would make any sense. A person who is familiar should be familiar with all the concepts covered in the book. *shrug*

[Mark]

https://twitter.com/HLPitts/status/52...

[Ainslee]

This book is a great read for anyone interested in how identity is constructed online. This book provides a variety of ways in which identity is constructed.