Monday, January 8, 2007

Scavenging for Identity

A couple of weeks ago we did a mall scavenger hunt with our youth group. I, a couple of youth volunteers and a couple of others all donned disguises and went wandering through the Clackamas Town Center while three teams of youth (who had pictures of how we looked "normally") tried to find us.

Although I have dressed up for Halloween and have gone to costume parties, I don't know that I have ever worn a disguise in as "undefined" a place. I felt like a character without a story, without a context, and I found myself feeling extremely self-concious. I didn't know who I was.

Which brings me to a post at marko's blog today. It seems that teens discard their virtual identities as easily as I pulled off my wig and washed my face after I was "found." And if teens are trying on different identities as they mature anyway, this would only make sense. (By the way, I did go to the original post and there are responses from teens who have kept their names and passwords for years.)

The author is apparently somewhat concerned about this trend, as she argues that the "answer" is not to help teens remember passwords. On the other hand, she compares shedding sites with changing clothes, and sees value in it as well.

I would disagree that teens don't care about losing something that they've spent hours building; maybe teens see these sites more as conversations and less as products. Can you lose a conversation? While a teen may have "lost" a site or password, she hasn't lost the relationships and experiences associated with that site (unless losing some of the relationships is part of the point.)

This is an intriguing article, but I'm not sure it offers radically new insights. It does provide us with one more illustration of teens trying on identities and context in the mall of our disconnected society. I could say more, but I'll close for now.

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