The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age
AllucquereRosanne Stone July 16, 1995 The MIT Press
ISBN #978-0262193627
Copyright: 1995 - The MIT Press
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In this work, Allucquere Rosanne Stone examines the myriad ways modern technology is challenging traditional notions of gender identity. Face-to-face meetings, and even telephone conversations, involuntarily reveal crucial aspects of identity such as gender, age and race. However, these bits of identity are completely masked by computer-mediated communications; all that is revealed is what we "choose" to reveal - and then only if we choose to tell the truth. The rise of computer-mediated communications is giving people the means to try on alternative personae - in a sense, to reinvent themeselves - which, as Stone compellingly argues, has both positive and potentially destructive implications.