Investigating Youth's Life Online Phenomena: Subverting Dichotomies through Negotiation of Offline and Online Identities

  • Authors:

  • Azilawati Jamaludin;Yam San Chee

  • Affiliations:

  • National Institute of Education, Singapore;National Institute of Education, Singapore

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

This paper examines the dialectics between living in offline and digitally-mediated worlds and how youth construct their identity and sense of self, negotiate meaning, and make sense of their social experiences. Situating the study within the context of the popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft WoW, the authors investigate the interplay between the everyday, situated lives of five digital youth gamers, aged 18 to 25, and their activities and 'lived practices' in WoW. Findings suggest a recurrent theme that challenges ascribed dichotomies between youth's presence in the offline and online world in terms of their identities in play, sense of embodiment, and orientation toward work, play, and the spirit of communitas within WoW. Exploration of such a phenomenon indicates a more intimately enmeshed and dialectically coupled experience of youths' in their contextual traversals, providing a fundamental conceptual understanding of the impact of youths' exodus to the virtual world and its implications for 21st century teaching and learning. The outcomes address theoretical challenges associated with the interpretation of 21st century literacy performances that may be characterized as a need to move away from static and linear narratives of development to a more divergent becoming of learners through the learning process.