Verified, Tracked, and Visible: A History of the Configuration of the Internet User

• Main Author: St. Louis, Christopher
• Other Authors: Alilunas, Peter
• Language: en_US
• Published: University of Oregon 2018
• Subjects: Internet history; Internet studies; Media history; Privacy; Surveillance
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/23154

The figure of the user is often overlooked in Internet histories, which frequently focus on larger treatments of infrastructure, governance, or major contributions of specific individuals. This thesis constructs a philosophical and ideological history of the Internet user and examines how that figure has changed though the evolution of the Internet. Beginning with the Web 2.0 paradigm in the early 2000s, a growing state and corporate interest in the Internet produced substantial changes to the structure and logic of the Internet that saw the user being placed increasingly at the periphery of online space as the object of state surveillance or behavioral tracking. The three case studies in this thesis investigate the combination of technological constraints and discursive strategies which have aided in shaping the contemporary user from active architect of the Internet itself to passive, ideal consumer of predetermined online experiences.