Digital identity
Today the Social Security Administration declined to identify my internationally adopted son as a US citizen, despite a law that made him a citizen the second he landed at LAX more than two years ago."We know all about that law," the clerk told my wife, "but you don't have the proper identification to establish him as a US citizen."
It seems two sets of adoption decrees--one from Vietnam, one from Texas--and an INS card don't qualify as proper "identification."
With all this roiling in my head, I turned to David Weinberger's recent wonderings about "digital identity." Just what does it mean to be a "person"--or at least to have various "identities"--in cyberspace?
Headlined, "There is no 'I' in 'Identity,'" Weinberger's article in the Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization turns to Ordinary Language analysis of our "real world" use of the term "identity" to understand what "identity" means in a digital context.
And it's an important question for pastoral theologians to consider as the Web becomes a place/source/resource where increasing numbers of people seek spiritual connection, religious information, and a sense of self as a being before God [or whatever they choose to call the Ground of Being].
While I haven't given the piece much thought, Weinberger's reflections do raise some questions for me:
Is the distinction between "identity" and "self" a pragmatic and helpful tool that's been hijacked by a consumer culture? [His talk about what "identification" a merchant needs from customers led me down this path.]
What would it mean to identify as a "Christian" or "spiritual person" or "theologian" in an online context?
And, personally, what "identity" would be most helpful for me to claim to make sense of [and cope with] the SSA's citizenship dilemma with my son--pastor, father, teacher, citizen? After my wife's makeup bag was seized by the Department of Homeland Security last December, I'm a little shy to engage the issue as directly and critically as I might like! :)
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, April 20, 2004
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