Communication Between Cultures

Cyberidentity and Fantasy Identity

Our lives increasingly focus around the Internet. On a near daily basis, we spend time

online engaged in a variety of activities—communicating, searching for information,

shopping, seeking leisure, conducting work-related tasks, social exchanges, and a vari-

ety of other endeavors. It is common to see people in a coffee shop working on a

laptop or walking along absorbed in some type of activity on their mobile device.

The Internet allows you quickly and easily to access and exchange information on a

worldwide basis. As Suler informs us, the Internet also provides an opportunity to

escape the constraints of our everyday identities:

One of the interesting things about the Internet is the opportunity it offers people to pres-

ent themselves in a variety of different ways. You can alter your style of being just slightly

or indulge in wild experiments with your identity by changing your age, history, personality,

and physical appearance, even your gender. The username you choose, the details you do or

don’t indicate about yourself, the information presented on your personal web page, the

persona or avatar you assume in an online community—all are important aspects of how

people manage their identity in cyberspace.^40

The Internet allows individuals to select and promote what they consider the positive

features of their identity and omit any perceived negative elements or even construct an

“imaginary persona.”The Internet is replete

with a variety of websites, such as Internet for-

ums, online chat rooms, massively multiplayer

online role-playing games (MMORPG), and

massively multiplayer online worlds (MMOW)

that construct a computer-driven virtual envi-

ronment allowing users to construct a cyberi-

dentity, that may or may not correspond to

their actual identity. Infatuation with these

invented identities can become so strong they

can“take on a life of their own.”^41

Fantasy identity, which also extends across cultures, centers on characters from

science fiction movies, comic books (manga), andanime. Every year, people attend

domestic and international conventions devoted to these subjects. For example, the

2014 Hong Kong Ani-Com and Games convention drew a record attendance of

752,000 and attracted 550 commercial exhibitors.^42 Comic-Con International has

been held annually in San Diego, California, since 1970, and in 2014 attendance

exceeded 130,000.^43 At these gatherings many attendees come dressed, individually

or in groups, as their favorite fantasy character(s). For a few hours or days, they

assume, enact, and communicate the identity of their favorite media character. But

conventions are not the only opportunity for people to indulge their fantasy identi-

ties.“Cosplay”(short for“costume play”) is another venue that lets people attend

events or parties dressed as media characters.

Other Identities

Space limitations preclude our addressing the many other forms of culturally influ-

enced identity that play a significant role in the daily lives of people. For example,

CONSIDER THIS

How does the Internet allow for individuals to select and

promote what they consider the positive features of their

identity and omit any perceived negative elements, or

even construct an“imaginary persona”? What are some

dangers of this feature of the Internet?

Other Identities 255

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