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. -ldentity as how individuals are A name is one of the defined, contained and enabled by things that give documents as opposed to the actions individuals their own they take. Fixed and deterministic. special identity, while -Identity- one that is open-ended also helping others and unstable one that is invented. identify the person. 'Identity- an academic concept. 1,," ~' fUthentk Matthews, G. (2000) cultural supermarket- nympetamlne_g LeOPard kavl a range of identities to be assumed. uri Ragdoll MAGNUM4D tall Mr Goober PlcherZ Ron Not a free market there are social Mlstlque rApture Nikki structures within which individual exist Babypup +sJoo- Dora which constrain the amount and scope of tlramlsu +Baboon Unclellm choice available to individual. Pillow talk @yuyu Amma Bento Pet NaUs Ah Fo tvaddlct @NevllShute SarahC MAGNUM4D Wei-JaN Izzatlrahman 3=E 9=G Darkstar poOwOk shantlni Warlock VamplreM Rames 0=0 Iwashl·kun Apek8188 vishnu @LLi3= Allie ckBoy Virgin guy Praveen D3ad= dead Syaklla uncleokul Looklng4gals 9rac3= Grace angkasawan. heartman_ceyl ChlnHalYan malaysia onese35single leTHam BoreDAGaL mulAtao l' M N o· P Q II' S T' V V W )( Y l' A I'e DO£ f G' HI' J I( 1 ,..,,1\10 " Lll 5 J U V W ICo J 2 , 1 6 1-' 1 _, I( PicherZ • • I Il lolL 12 S • U J w x ., -t, A • , 11 • ph • H ! J 1< ( .... -t 1_ IV! 11\\ oh I' 0_ 11 • WI '1/ )I{ -t ,. )0 c L' H I I II + ~ • 1] < I III /I II 1"10<1 /l i 1 II W K 141 s., t·, I] I II e 'H..,. l IJ rApture • I) I II. c. H M q L M N pI' 12 .... 'Jf ,of .c:kI. ] II ..n N. I> 0, I' .. , (II' .. ~ 7_ .,.& CI ~,- ... I V I> ,_. tv. I-I J[ J /I\V<\> 0," 1- \'VI' '-I +sjoo- ..I 1 L· H 1\\ N 1 II W M • IVI 9 \1/ •• · u cj m n 1'1 I 1 n , intentional misspellings especially the n , ~~u If /.2 ;-'- (V) • 17 I \VA M []\ll 12 VI "z" at the end of words ("skillz"). " ~' 11\ N R x., ,,2 I 1111 e V\) II m \\ Lll /,.\ uu M W 1M I Mystique (Raven Darkholme) IS a fictional character associated WIth the Marvel Comics' franchise, X-Men Throughout most of her history, Mystique has been a Darkstar (Laynia Petrovna) is a fictional supervillainess, founding the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants character, a mutant superheroine in the and assassinating several Important people involved in mutant affairs. Mystique herself is a mutant, a Marvel Comics universe. She has been a shapeshifter whose natura! appearance her blue skin and member of various super-teams in her yellow eyes. At one point, she mentioned she IS over a 100 years old, Mystique is the mother of the villain career and ultimately died as a member of Graydon Creed, the X-Men hero Nighlcra'HIer and foster the X-Corporation in New X-Men. A new mother of the hero Rogue. She was forced to abandon Nlghtcrav.1er, but rajeeo Rogue for a number of years and Darkstar has since appeared several the two women have mixed feelings towards one another. times as a member of the new Winter Despite Mystique's history of crime, she was most recently wol1<ing with the X-Men's Professor X in a short- Guard. lived series. She was later voted straight into the X-Men. nympetamine_gurl Nymphetamine Fix Cradle of Filth is an extreme metal lall mulAtao Nikki khalrulanwar band, formed in Suffolk, United Kingdom in 1991. mmuurrllyy uncleokui SarahC angkasawan- c123 malaysia 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. ©.