Designer selves: Construction of technologically mediated identity within graphical, multiuser virtual environments

Abstract

The emergence of graphical, multiuser virtual environments has created new forums for the performance of identity, forums in which information system designers' decisions may influence people's presentation of self. Based on ethnographic research, this paper describes designers' actions affecting identity performance within graphical virtual environments, and the manner in which those decisions interact with larger social contexts of dominance based on race, class, and gender. I make explicit the social consequences of designer's decisions, in order to further the dialogue between social scientists and technologists, and make suggestions regarding how designers may approach the construction of virtual environments without unwittingly contributing to patterns of dominance in society.