How material are cyberbodies? Broadband Internet and embodied subjectivity

Abstract

Internet use is commonly portrayed as a form of disembodied communication, that is, communication from which bodily performativity has vanished, leaving users free to indulge in identity play and even downright identity fraud. In this article, I seek to challenge this particular construction of cyberspace. I argue that in the broadband era, enhanced bandwidth is increasingly facilitating the exchange of bodily cues and creating stronger convergence with audio-visual media. Second, even in largely text-based online communications, bodily markers often emerge either unintentionally as part of the dynamics of discourse construction or deliberately to authenticate users' identity. Third, the material body is central to Internet use, which is to a considerable extent motivated by bodily needs and desires, as the popularity of countless health and lifestyle websites suggests. Finally, I also argue that constructing the Internet as virtual and disembodied obscures the material and embodied lived reality in which technology operates.