Define Me: A Cognitive and Computational Approach to Critical Digital Identity Representation in Social Networking Applications

Invoking a theoretical framework situated at the intersection of humanistic accounts of social identity construction, cognition linguistics research, and digital media technologies, the Advanced Identity Representation (AIR) Project develops theory and technology for users to represent complex, dynamic social identities in digital media such as virtual worlds and social networking sites. Here, we primarily present DefineMe – Chimera, a social networking application that uses a dynamic system of categorization and allows users to define each other through metaphorical projection. DefineMe is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach that articulates the shared socio-cognitive substrates beneath user representations ranging from user created profiles on social networking sites to avatars in virtual worlds. Secondarily, we present Identity Share, a social networking project developed using the DefineMe database structure that allows users to define identity categories, share profiles, and anonymously follow each other’s web searching paths. The result of the projects is an early articulation of a spectrum of new user identity representations with foci upon group membership, utilization/creation of boundary infrastructures (Bowker & Star 1999; Lave & Wenger 1991), along with cognitive models of metonomy, metaphor, and visual imagery. (Hutchins 1996;