- Talking about the early internet, [[Stephen, Bijan]] says in [[Stephen, Bijan - 2023 - There is No Us|‘There is No Us’]]: > It wasn’t all bad. It couldn’t be. It was a home for our first writing, our first art; the setting for some of our first private relationships; the place where you could try on new identities and work out who you really were... All this happened in the private space between our brains, our hands, and our machines... - The most striking of these is the ability to try on new identities. I can’t remember how many personalities, ages, interests I tried on growing up alongside the internet. I imagine kids are still doing the same thing, although possibly with more visibility. - [[2024-09-07]] — This is an interesting contrast to [[{1.2a1a} social media removes agency in our identity performance]]. - Like, I guess it varies by platform. In all cases, [[{1.2a2a} social media decontextualizes our relationships by flattening our social network]], but we are to play with identity performance by using different platforms for different use-cases, or creating multiple accounts. - [ ] this is an element of users defining social norms of different platforms… need to find the note about that. - [[2025-01-25]] see [[{1.2a1a1} the internet lets you try on new identities]]