The Second Self
by Sherry Turkle · Sherry Turkle
Sherry Turkle's ethnographic study of how children, hobbyists, and programmers relate to computers in the early personal computing era. Shows how computers shaped thinking about mind, identity, and machines, offering a foundational framework for the psychology of human-computer relationships.
This link may earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure
More resources on Digital Culture & Internet
Fibreculture Journal
An open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal publishing research on digital media, networks, and internet culture, organized into themed issues. Useful for reading current scholarly arguments and research methods in digital media studies and network culture.
Internet History, Technology, and Security
The impact of technology and networks on our lives, culture, and society continues to increase. The very fact that you can take this course from anywhere in the world requires a technological infrastructure that was designed, engineered, and built over the past sixty years. To function in an information-centric world, we need to understand the workings of network technology. This course will open up the Internet and show you how it was created, who created it and how it works. Along the way we will meet many of the innovators who developed the Internet and Web technologies that we use today. What You Will Learn: After this course you will not take the Internet and Web for granted. You will be better informed about important technological issues currently facing society. You will realize that the Internet and Web are spaces for innovation and you will get a better understanding of how you might fit into that innovation. If you get excited about the material in this course, it is a great lead-in to taking a course in Web design, Web development, programming, or even network administration. At a minimum, you will be a much wiser network citizen.
Rhizome
A New York nonprofit and affiliate in residence at the New Museum that commissions, exhibits, and preserves born-digital art. Its Net Art Anthology and ArtBase archive let you trace how internet art and network culture developed since the 1990s.
Life on the Screen
Sherry Turkle's study of identity in online spaces such as MUDs, chat rooms, and simulation software. Explains how people experiment with multiple selves online and how computing shifted ideas about mind and self; a foundational text in internet studies.
aoir.org
AOIR.org is the website for the Association of Internet Researchers, a professional community focused on the study of digital communication and internet research methods. It offers information about membership and events, along with ethics guidelines, publications, and resources for conducting ethical internet research.