Bix dot Blog

“Context is sometimes difficult to detect online,” writes J. E. LaCaze. “And context is an important part of determining which identity to call upon at any moment.” I’ve talked before about how on the web we build context through the use of hyperlinks, and how Twitter-style platforms perhaps make that more difficult with the lack of true inline hyperlinks and needing to break up longer, more comprehensive thoughts into threads of 280-character pieces. Now I wonder if the move away from personal websites and blogs to discrete social media silos (status updates over here, photos over there, longform who knows where) also makes it more difficult to establish context for identity. Then again, I can’t even find a consistent context for identity over the entire fifty years of my own life.