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From Chapter 3 "Identity Construction on the Internet" by Sandra L. Calvert Sandra L. Calvert is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Children's Digital Media Center at Georgetown College. Her research activities involve the impact of information technologies such as television and computers on children's attention, comprehension, and social behavior. Professor Calvert's Current research at the Children's Digital Media Center is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Stuart Family Foundation. With her colleagues and students, she is examining the influences of identity and interactivity on children's learning from entertainment technologies.

In this article Professor Calvert examines adolescent identity issues using the views of Erikson, Jung, and the Social Interactionist perspective. Her main focus is on MUDs (multi-user domains) and the dynamic of interaction regarding the creation of online personae which are then used as a channel for identity experimentation among children as well as adults. She cites the notion of the adolescent moratorium as puported by Erikson, and also claims that through online personae users experiment with the various archetypes mentioned by Jung. The latter is done primarily through gender experimentation, which Calvert claims to represent the anima and animus, and also through negative and deceptive roles which represent the archetype of the "shadow." Calvert confronts the issue of core identity versus multiple selves. Her thesis is "that multiple selves are role played to construct a unified sense of self, or identity. While some of these exchanges are only textual in nature, others involve symbolically enacted behaviors through avatars. She concludes by stating "as a society, our challenge is to help young people navigate their real life and their online "selves" to forge a constructive unified personal identity.