Session for MSc Media Psychology students @salforduni. What does it mean to live and breath the web and how is technology impacting upon the self? Most importantly is the emphasis on our need for networks and how other people contribute to who we are and what we can achieve.

1. Living and
Breathing the
Web
Flickr: The Daring Librarian
Jenna Condie
@SalfordUni
#mediapsych

2. #mediapsych
Session Overview
1. History of the internet: Why did we build it?
2. Identities and communities: What does it mean to
live and breath online?
3. A postmodern world: Are digital platforms
transforming the self?
4. Dilemmas: What are the contemporary, professional
and ethical issues for us?
5. Creation and contribution: Should we be producing
digital content about our discussions today?
6. The future: Where are we going?

3. #mediapsych
1. History of the internet
Link: http://vimeo.com/2696386
Why did we build it?

4. #mediapsych
Our Need for Networks
A network consists of two or
more computers that are
linked in order to share
resources (FCIT, 2011). Flickr: sjcockell
Networks – links between two or more people have
always existed through the entirety of human history
(Crosier et al., 2012)
Electronic and digital technology =
social network explosion (Crosier et al., 2012)

5. #mediapsych
Information & Communication
• Social Networking Sites (SNS)
• Social Media (SM)
• Diff between SNS & SM?
• Information age
• Digital age
South Park episode - no internet*
• Architecture of sites influence our behaviour
Papacharissi (2009) - comparison of three sites
*thank you @kvlpsych

6. #mediapsych
Flickr: Adam Crowe
We shape our tools
and thereafter
our tools shape us
Marshall McLuhan

7. #mediapsych
Right here, right now*…
*thank you @CathyUre

8. #mediapsych
Rapid, constant, quickening change
Flickr: Alexkess
Q: What knowledge about social media and
internet use is worth teaching today?

9. #mediapsych
2. Identities and Communities
Identity - our essential continuous self, the
internal conception of oneself as an individual
(Reber 1995).
Community - a group of people linked by social
ties, common perspectives, engaged in joint
action in geographical locations/settings
(MacQueen et al., 2001)

10. #mediapsych
Reconceptualising identities and communities
“As is classically said, the internet is not any sort of place at all,
in the usual geographical sense of the term.”
(Goodings et al., 2007, p. 465)
Is Facebook a place?
Identity as “a project of the self” (Benwell & Stokoe,
2006, p. 18)
Giddens (1991) Reflexive modernisation thesis
Identity as embedded in the social context (Burr, 2003)
Identity as relational (Mason, 2004)
Identity as collective (Seaton, 2008)

11. #mediapsych
3. A Postmodern World
Q: Are digital platforms transforming the self?
“The rise of the network society and
the growing power of identity are
the intertwined social processes
that jointly define globalization,
geopolitics, and social
Flickr: woodleywonderworks
transformation in the early
twenty-first century.”
(Castells, 2010, p. xvii)

12. #mediapsych
Identities as…
Dialogical Fluid
Constructing ourselves out there in space
Multivoiced Agency
12

13. #mediapsych
Dialogical Self, Collective voices
• Bakhtin (1986) an individual speaker’s utterance is
influenced by the culture of groups and communities
in which they participate (in Hermans, 2004).
• Technology speeding this up (Hermans, 2004)
– More than ever before, the self is composed of a high
density of positions
– The positions of the self are relatively heterogeneous
– The self is subjected to larger “position leaps”
• Gergen (2000) The Saturated Self
• Link to globalisation and impact upon self (Hermans
& Dimaggio, 2007)

14. #mediapsych
Technology & Dialogue
• Technology has implications for the process of
dialogue (Hermans, 2004).
– In a situation of “mediated dialogue”
– Exposed to a broadening range of meanings,
values, ideas, and cultures through vast range of
media
– Transforming the content and scope of our self-
dialogue.
Flickr: AhmadHammoud
More complex world,
more complex networks,
more complex self.
Flickr: allthecolor

15. #mediapsych
Not virtual but mediated communities
Goodings et al., (2007) – definition of mediated
communities:
• A dialectic of place and collective;
• The mobilisation of symbolic resources;
• The maintenance of a collective history and
• The underwriting of personal identity in place
identity (Dixon & Durrheim, 2000).
Who we are is where we are whether on or offline.

16. #mediapsych
4. The Dilemmas
Q: What are the contemporary, professional and
ethical issues for us?
Flickr: broodkast

17. #mediapsych
BPS Guidance on Social Media Ethics
E-professionalism for clinical psychologists - “The
recent explosion of social media presents both new
opportunities and challenges” (BPS, 2012a, p. 2)
Supplementary guidance on the use of social media
(BPS, 2012b)
– SNS public and permanent, professional & personal
life as separate as possible, act responsibly at all
times, uphold reputation of the profession, protect
your privacy & check settings, report misconduct.

18. #mediapsych
Professional Learning Networks
Mackey & Evans (2011)
• Surge of interest in ‘community’ to support
sociocultural approaches to learning
• PLNs need to be organic, driving learning rather
than an add-on
• Communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991)
• Sine qua non for higher education (Garrison &
Cleveland-Innes, 2005)
• Nexus of multimembership (Wenger, 1998)
Recorded webinar from @drdjwalker: https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-11-
13.1043.M.E7B9994E25BCB4740807DC7612730B.vcr&sid=28769

19. #mediapsych
5. Creation and Contribution
Q: Should we be producing digital content about our
discussions today?
– If yes, how? If no, why not?
Social innovation, enterprise, engagement, dialogue,
influence, communication, sharing, knowledge,
relationships, PLN, Flickr: Cea.
feedback, presence
The Tribes we Lead
Seth Godin TED talk

20. #mediapsych
New culture of learning
(Thomas & Brown, 2011)*
20
*thank you @cristinacost Flickr: Bruce Clay, Inc

21. Digital Storytelling & Agency
(Hull & Katz, 2006)
The Web as a Dialogical
Learning Environment*
*Thank you @zoekav & @ash_chapman

22. #mediapsych
6. The Future?
• Government perspective
– Technology and Innovation Futures: UK Growth
Opportunities for the 2020s (BIS Report, 2010)
• Social and cultural perspectives:
– The Smartphone Psychology Manifesto (Miller, 2012)
– Aleks Krotoski, academic & journalist, “Africa,
smartphones, disruptive technologies, human-centred
design” (Guardian Interview).
– Genevieve Bell, Intel anthropologist, “New devices,
new infrastructures, and new experiences for starters,
but also more of the same it seems. We want to be
social, we want to be engaged, we like a good story.”
(Pocket-lint Interview)

23. #mediapsych
* Living and breathing
the web
* Everyone I have thanked throughout these slides, I
am connected to online (and offline). Without my
professional learning network, this session would have
been very different. On that note, thank *you* 

24. #mediapsych
References
Benwell, B., & Stokoe, E. H. (2006). Discourse and Identity. Edinburgh: University Press.
Burr, V. (2003). Social constructionism. London: Routledge.
BPS (2012a) e-Professionalism: Guidance on the use of social media by clinical psychologists, Available at:
http://www.bpsshop.org.uk/e-Professionalism-Guidance-on-the-use-of-social-media-by-clinical-psychologists-
P2494.aspx
BPS (2012b) Supplementary Guidance on the Use of Social Media, Available at:
http://www.bps.org.uk/system/files/images/2012_ethics_committee_social_media.pdf
Genevieve Bell – Technology@Intel
Castells, M. (2010) The power of identity: The information age: Economy, society, and culture, Oxford: Wiley-
Blackwell
Crosier, et al., (2012) Wired to connect: Evolutionary Psychology and Social Networks, Review of General
Psychology, 16(2), p. 230-239.
FCIT (2011) Chapter 1: What is a Network? Available here http://fcit.usf.edu/network/chap1/chap1.htm
Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2005). Facilitating cognitive presence in online learning: Interaction is
not enough. American Journal of Distance Education, 19(3), 133–148.
Gergen, K. (2000). The Saturated Self. New York: Basic Books.
Goodings, L., et al., (2007) Social Networking Technology: Place and Identity in Mediated Communities, J.
Community Appl. Soc. Psychol., 17, p. 463–476
Hermans, H. (2004). Introduction: The dialogical self in a global and digital age. Identity. An International
Journal of Theory and Research, 4:4, 297-320
Hermans, H., & Dimaggio, G. (2007) Self, Identity, and Globalization in Times of Uncertainty: A Dialogical
Analysis, Review of General Psychology, 11(1), p. 31–61

25. #mediapsych
References
Hull, G., & Katz, M-L (2006) Crafting an Agentive Self: Case Studies on Digital Storytelling, Research in the
Teaching of English, 41(1), p. 43-81
Aleks Krotoski – Untangling the Web (Guardian) Digital Human (BBC)
Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Mackey, J., & Evans, T. (2011). Interconnecting networks of practice for professional learning.International
Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(3), 1–17.
MacQueen, K., et al., (2001) What Is Community? An Evidence-Based Definition for Participatory Public
Health, ) Am J Public Health, 91(12), p. 1929–1938.
Mason, Jennifer. (2004). Personal narratives, relational selves: residential histories in the living and telling. The
Sociological Review, 52(2), 162–179.
Miller, (2012) The Smartphone Psychology Manifesto, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(3), p. 221–237
Papacharissi , Z.(2009) The virtual geographies of social networks: a comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn
and ASmallWorld, New Media Society, 11, p. 199 - 220
Reber, A. (1995) The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology, Harmondsworth: Penguin
Seaton, E. E. (2009). Common Knowledge: Reflections on Narratives in Community. Qualitative Research, 8,
293–305.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. (2011) A new culture of learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a world of constant
change
Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge: CUP

26. Living and
Breathing the
Web
Flickr: The Daring Librarian
Jenna Condie
@SalfordUni
#mediapsych