Identity in the techno-social milieu: messages in a bottle in a maelstrom of flows

Identity in the network is markedly a different construct than when created in isolation.

This is a mere thought experiment as identity in isolation is, by many accounts, simply not possible; humans are a social being and the very etymology of the word "identity", that is, latin for "the same" (Barney, 2004:143), supposes continuity, multiplicity, and in application a specific response to a wider structure and its temporality.

That is, the multiplicity, continuity and wider audience are all symptoms of a structural condition. It's to say the act of "sameness" must exist within a structure and thus we can think of identity as existing within a structure also. Within this structure it should be recognised by others, even if by 'others' we don't necessarily define who, or what 'others' are, though most likely the first and default recognition will occur by the human or entity to which it belongs which in turn creates an almost implicit extrapolatory assumption of the make up of an audience, perhaps at the expense of the notion of structure.

What I am saying is that we think of identity as a continuity of sameness which is recognisable by the audience. We assume that audience as human belonging in a social structure.

What I propose, from here is an examination of the role of identity within the network. Not a network of humans, but the network of technology channels interfacing flows between nodes, themselves capable of being made up of human and non-human actors, as well as being made up of a concert of other nodes, human, non-human and other actors. This "techno-social milieu" focuses on the implicatory aspects of cultural practice and technology. The techno-social milieu only exists as a multiplicity; one who's constituents are dynamic and faceless. A concert of humans, their avatars, the nodal exchange over technological platforms, the technologically determined communication format under which these exchanges are funneled, and further their resulting receipt and responding actions or replies - all interactions bound in identity.

The networks within this techno-social milieu offer us still access to identity as sameness. A background where rhizomic interactions of a structureless structure take place and the dynamism with which nodes belong to differing networks with different degrees is an inherent characteristic of the milieu. Within this background the make-up of identity, as a role within a structure, is itself specifically different than has in the time of modernity. The technologies and tools, the identity vessels and interactive signs which make up this milieu force quantification of identity. They implicate the production with distribution, and thus, with considerations of the big other, a pervasive structure, and other feedback effects, it must not be taken for granted when examining the inner dynamics of identity itself in the 21st century, as sameness is no longer the same as sameness.



Related links/bibliography:
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Aus2d8mh1Q4C&lpg=PA143&ots=lsTV7H9OSA&dq=network%20society%20and%20sameness&pg=PA143#v=onepage&q=network%20society%20and%20sameness&f=false
http://www.blunks.net/?cat=24
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=iqQyf4KxQfkC&lpg=PA4&ots=_ROWtaorZ-&dq=network%20society%20and%20sameness&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q=network%20society%20and%20sameness&f=false
http://www.zulenet.com/VladimirDimitrov/pages/identity.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_(philosophy)
http://www.education.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/itf09socemofdisro.asp?print=yes
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=c8Q3wMxHbXwC&lpg=PA7&ots=ptSZdJMcTL&dq=identity%20in%20relation%20to%20others&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q=identity%20in%20relation%20to%20others&f=false