All the World’s a Stage: Theorizing and Producing Blended Identities in a Cybercultural World

Book excerpt: All the World’s a Stage: Theorizing and Producing Blended Identities in a Cybercultural World explores the extent to which cyber and “real” selves increasingly overlap, intersect, and entwine. As the quotation from Shakespeare indicates, the question of the roles we play in society and their relation to our self is not new; however, the rise of cyberculture has further complicated the relationship between our sense of self and our social roles, because it provides more opportunities to adopt new or changed identities. Some contributors to this volume welcome the complexities of the self that cyberculture has engendered, and explore changes in morality, community, and identity. Others acknowledge the negative effects of such performative identities, questioning what we lose by constructing ourselves so constantly in response to a virtual audience. Nevertheless, cyberculture is now “real” culture, and coming to terms with who we are online increasingly determines who we are altogether.