Cyber Names: Constructing Individual and Cultural

CYBER NAMES: The focus of this study is on the construction of individual and cultural identity via ones' CONSTRUCTING INDIVIDUAL choice of cyber names in chat rooms. AND CULTURAL IDENTITIES This paper is a preliminary study of the construction of identities via the choice of Karen Kow Yip Cheng names in chat rooms. Given the anonymous University of Malaya nature of chat rooms, this study is a particularly complex one.

By using cyber names, the chat room The relative anonymity of cyberspace community identifies themselves and allows for the making of identities that their netizens as inhabitants of a are not bound by the conventions of a different and unorthodox world, but it is physical world. In other words, in an nevertheless one that recognizes the alternate, notional world that has no netizens as a community in their own borders or boundaries, netizens are free to construct an individual and cultural cyber domain. ~ identity of their own choice.

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Virgin guy nympetamine_gurl Ragdoll Looking4gals Syakila heartman_ceylonese35single BoreDAGaL VampireM NaughtylBYINature Apek8188 Bart Milton Gordon (1964) in his 'melting pot' theory Multiculturalism which rejects assimilation looked at melting pot assimilation which involved began as a movement in the field of the fusion, both cultural and biological, of all societal education (Higham 2001). It calls for equal- groups into a totally new blend. In this hybrid respect and recognition of contributions of society, all racial and ethnic groups become all racial and ethnic groups with a focus on 'melted together by the fires of American influence and interaction into a distinctly new the importance of maintaining cultural type' (Gordon 1964:115) The final outcome of diversity (Higham 2001; Giroux 1994; such a homogenizing process is the fusion of Dworkin & Dworkin 1999; Gordon & formerly distinct groups into an ethnically Newfield 1996). undifferentiated society.

While assimilation is not the desired outcome in Malaysia's quest to be a globalized nation, multiculturalism-for want of a better term-is. Thank you muHiculturalism is seen as one that rejects assimilation into a mainstream culture and an ethnically undifferentiated society. Multiculturalism, in the context of Malaysia, maintains pluralism, that is, the cultural diversity Questions? and uniqueness of all ethnic groups in Malaysia. [email protected] However it does not see the maintenance process © as one that rejects 'intimate group relationships' (Gordon 1994; Gans 1997) but rather one that © © © © fosters unity in diversity. ©