Imagining identity in Meta's metaverse: a genealogy of imagined future realms in computer culture

Katachie, Solomon and Kessler, Asher (2024) Imagining identity in Meta's metaverse: a genealogy of imagined future realms in computer culture. Communication, Culture & Critique. ISSN 1753-9129

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Abstract

Woven into the fabric of Meta’s Metaverse, and core to its selling point, is a social imaginary of a new realm within our grasp, one in which individuals are imagined to possess greater control over their positionings and social markings. This liberational promise underlying Meta’s metaverse is inherited from past visions of the future within the history of American computer culture. Employing a genealogical approach, we investigate some advertisements for imagined new realms at various points in that history—The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC), an ad campaign for cyberspace, and Meta’s “Are We There Yet”—focusing on how identity is (re)constructed in each.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://academic.oup.com/ccc
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Authors
Divisions:	Media and Communications
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Date Deposited:	17 May 2024 10:51
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2024 16:56
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/123510

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