Boundaries of the Self-online

 Personal boundaries are the set of guidelines, rules or limits that a person creates to
identity reasonable, safe and permissible ways.
 People may interact with each other in real time.
 Not having to cope with someone’s immediate reaction disinhibits people.

Private vs. Public

 Private mode: Nobody can judge the statements and images because of the cloak of
invisibility.
 Public mode: the post will be treated as open book.
 In virtual interactions, people cannot always be sure when/where someone is present.

Personal/Individual vs. Social Identity Online

 Identity is made up of both personal identity and social identity.

 According to Sherry Turkle, people have different roles in different settings.

Gender and Sexuality Online

 Researchers have found that the problem behaviors often characterize highly masculine
adolescents.
 Gender intensification hypothesis
 Study: Gender Stereotype in Facebook Profiles: Are Woman More Female Online?
 Study: Gender Identity
 Sex is explicitly portrayed in movies, TV shows, videos, lyrics of popular music, MTV and
internet sites.