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Life on the Screen:
Identity in the Age of the Internet

Sherry Turkle
1995, Simon & Schuster
ISBN 0-684-80353-4

Preços oficiais:
U.S. $25.00
Can. $34.00

Dados do Autor:

Vive em Boston - Massachusetts e a sua carreira tem sido suportada pela NSF - National Science Foundation, pela MacArthur Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation e pela Rockefeller Foundation.
Professora de Sociologia da Ciência no MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology e Psicóloga clínica. Tem um Ph.D. conjunto obtido na Universidade de Harvard em Psicologia da Personalidade e Sociologia.

Outros títulos publicados:

Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud’s French Revolution
The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit Capa

Excertos e comentários sobre o livro:

“RL is just one more window, and it’s usually not my best one.” These are the words of a college student who considers the worlds he inhabits through his computer as real as RL-real life. He’s talking about the time he spends “being” four different characters in three different MUDs-multi-user domains-as well as the time he spends doing his homework on the computer. As he sees it, he splits his mind and “turns on one part” and then another as he cycles from window to window on his screen. The computer and the Internet allow him to explore different aspects of himself. As another user puts it, “You are who you pretend to be.” “

“Since only a decade ago, when Sherry Turkle published her seminal book The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, we have experienced dramatic change in the way we use and view computers. We no longer give “commands” to a machine; we enter into dialogues, navigate simulated worlds, and create virtual realities. Further, the psychological holding power of the computer is no longer limited to one-on-one person/machine interaction. Millions of people now interact with one another via computers on networks, where they have the opportunity to talk, to exchange ideas and feelings, and to assume personae of their own creation”.

“It is a complete escape....On IRC, I’m very popular. I have three handles I use a lot...So one [handle] is serious about the war in Yugoslavia, [another is] a bit of a nut about Melrose Place, and [a third is] very active on sexual channels, always looking for a good time...Maybe I can only relax if I see life as one more IRC channel.”

“The anonymity of most MUDs (you are known only by the name you give your characters) provides ample room for individuals to express unexplored parts of themselves. A twenty-one-year-old college senior defends his violent characters as “something in me; but quite frankly I’d rather rape on MUDs where no harm is done.” A twenty-six-year-old clerical worker says, “I’m not one thing, I’m many things. Each part gets to be more fully expressed in MUDs than in the real world. So even though I play more than one self on MUDs, I feel more like ‘myself’ when I’m MUDding.” ”

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