The Glass Man Identity Created by Normative Virtuality

Abstract

This paper examines the communication problem with creating online identity and saving private space in the era of data turn when every step and click is recorded and stored in databases. This article aims to present a new concept of human identification – the Glass man identity. The problem arises in the field of virtual communication when users have to be visible for the Other, i.e. a machine, and when everybody can be described in terms of database content and algorithms. The Glass man identity highlights the impact of social norms on the transformation from the cultural vision of self-representation in virtual space to surveillance culture. This concept is presented in the historical perspective on the Russian case of the normative use of language and phenomena of power as abilities to re-establish norms including moral ones. This study attempts to reveal the current trend of the ongoing changes both in human identity and ethics in the era of data turn. Glass man identity means a new type of human, a new type of balance between control and power. Glass man means a person who does not need to hide anything. Nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of – this is a new mode of communication and power. When Big Brother isn’t just a metaphor anymore.