Identity Management Goes Mobile

From first to last… If seeing an iPad in real life can spark fascination and intrigue from the masses, imagine what it does in the virtual space. People have created, chatted, and dated in virtual space for a while now, but most of this has taken place behind a stable computer, but this is changing greatly. As previously mentioned, the netbook was thought to revolutionize mobile computing, but it just didn’t cut the mustard. Enter the iPad. Managing your online identity while on the move has grown exponentially over the past few years, with cell phones working to offer users some of the same functionality they could do on their computers, but small screens and cramped keyboards only allow for so much. Our book explains that “…the Internet allows you to completely rework your appearance in an online environment…” “You are free to describe how you look, your expressions, posture, gestures, reactions, and so on. You can “try on” other appearances and personalities that would be impossible (or embarrassing) to carry off in real life” (Slack + Wise, 164). The iPad has become the perfect solution. The issue many faced with computers is that they could only update their statuses, profiles, and blogs while they were in front of a computer. What does this mean for representational space? They could only occupy their online identities for a short period of time. If, as in real life, we facilitate many different identities depending on our situations, if these occupancies become mobile, then we can inhabit as many online as we choose. The transformational factor, though, is that the lines begin to blur as never before because we are managing our virtual identities at the same time we are embodying our “real” selves. This assemblage shifts and changes the independence of these identities. Although, they may never morph into one complete identity, the management of these different identities will continue to intermingle closer and closer together. The iPad makes this fusion of real and virtual identities easier than ever. With the iPad’s architecture, applications to manage your virtual persona are made specifically for it. One could manage a different identity in each app they use. From the Foursquares to the Twitters, to the Facebooks, they are all available and are with you anywhere you are, complete with a large interactive screen that you can touch and feel as if your digital friends were real ones (kinda sad in a way…). An app, such as Sociable, can even bring these various identities together in one interface. Apps such as Flickr and Photo Wall allow the users to present pictures of their glorious lives and travels, letting viewers from around the world into their lives. On another level, the virtual world, Second Life, where you create a digital avatar of yourself (whoever that is at the moment) and move around in an entirely digital world. It is one of the closest experiences to a fully functioning digital representational space you can find. The world can now be traversed portably through the iPad, by using the Pocket Metaverse. Now you can enjoy the digital world (the Matrix) while sitting on a train in the real world (Earth-or so you think it is…the Matrix has you).
With many more people able to navigate these digital spaces more frequently and efficiently, what happens to this space? Identity markers such as race and gender may be able to be kept oblivious online, at least for a while, but the outside “physical” world still has major influence in the digital space and this causes the same tensions and separations as it can in reality, although, in some cases, indirectly. When you think about cultural implications such as status…does this mean now that those who can afford these high price devices are the ones who will now dominate this space since they have the ability to affect the virtual world at any place and at any time in a more effective manner (Slack + Wise, 166-167) ? Ipads are becoming the dominant player in the mobile computing space and with them brings massive amounts of control, flexibility, navigation, and resources. In a sense, the iPad is a major tool where one can do their online management anyplace and at any time, which becomes a powerful medium.

Think about information sources such as news organizations. Who has the power; who draws the crowds? Those who can get as much information to the people faster than others can. Who gets the information the fastest? The ones with the largest amount of resources: larger teams, better equipment, better technology. In turn they become more popular because people learn who the popular informants are. Transition into the digital realm. Say you create a digital persona in Second Life, how do you rise in the ranks? By having a persona that people want to watch or follow. This means having an active caricature that is always active. How do you become more active? Having the ability to manage the persona anytime, anywhere… the iPad rises.