Since the earliest days of the internet questions of
identity have fascinated both internet researchers and lay people alike. And
for good reason. It is, after all, both an intriguing and a fun issue that allows
lots of room for conjecture and theorizing, and there's no lack of somewhat
offbeat examples and bizarre vignettes that can be used as starting points,
or as filler. And of course under the
rather massive umbrella of the term identity there's room for just
about everything - interpersonal relationships, presentation of self, and of
course that long-standing favorite: lies and deception.
Frankly, having followed this issue quite a bit over the past
almost eight years I think it's fair to ask whether it's really the question
of identity on the internet that interests us. I often get the feeling that
behind all those studies devoted to identity is a basic voyeuristic desire to
get the dirty low-down. We say that presentation
of self fascinates us, but we're actually interested in taking a peek into territory
which is ordinarily left uncharted (and our willingness to allow that peek is
often a case of who is doing the peeking). Scratching the surface
is, after all, a pasttime which we've enjoyed since well before the internet,
and the opportunity to do so in such a relatively
new and novel venue is an opportunity few of us want to pass up.
So if I acknolwedge that I've been over much of this territory
before, a rather unavoidable question presents itself. Has anything new come
up since I last examined this issue that justifies an additional column? Or
perhaps, having run out of other topics to write about, I've simply chosen to
rehash previously examined materials? Well, I've never previously mentioned James
McLaughlin, and to my mind an examination of his online identity definitely
justifies once again raising these questions. McLaughlin is a well known "cyber
cop" - perhaps the best known. His
story has been told numerous times in the press. From his office at the
Police Department of Keene, New Hampshire, he lures out adults who seek sexual
liaisons with underage boys. And of course he does this by presenting himself
as just such an underage boy. Though I certainly won't argue with the fact that
Mr. McLaughlin is doing important and often commendable work, I
find myself wondering why it is that the adults who get lured out by him
are by definition sex offenders, while he gets labeled a hero even though he
also hangs out in those same online chat rooms and also presents himself in
a totally different light than his "real"
self.
Some people don't need James McLaughlin, or even to think about committing illegal
acts, in order to get caught. With them it seems to simply be a case of "show
me your hard drive and I'll show you who you are". Larry Matthews, for
instance, landed in jail because the judge in his case wouldn't permit him to
explain in his defense that he was a reporter collecting materials for a piece on internet
pornography. Matthews, whom I wrote about quite recently,
was a respected investigative reporter, but apparently pornography is pornography
is pornography, and if it's on your hard drive, you're guilty. Matthews didn't
"pretend to be" anyone. He thought he was acting as his real self
- a successful reporter and a respected member of his community. But it turns
out that he wasn't careful enough about who he really was.
Peter Townsend, the almost legendary rock guitarist, found himself in a similar
situation. Townsend was shocked to discover vast amounts of readily available
child pornography on the internet. He purchased some of this and brought it
to the police, telling them that they had to do something about the problem.
And of course they arrested him. His
story makes fascinating reading.
Kurt Vonnegut in Mother Night, his famous novel
of over forty years ago, presents us with an important, and oft-quoted,
maxim for the complexities of the (then) 20th century life:
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.In the novel, this point is brought home through the story of Howard Campbell, an American living in Germany who becomes an agent for the allies during World War II. Campbell's job for the allies, however, demands that he perform highly distateful work - he spouts racist Nazi propaganda on a radio show. It is through various pauses and coughs that he is able to transmit the information that the allies request of him. After the war, and after being captured by the Israelis as a Nazi propagandist (which of course he was) Campbell must deal with the question of his "real" identity. Was he a spy or a Nazi war criminal?
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