Assignment 6: Identity

As soon as I started to explore the world of AIM in High School, I thought it was the best thing ever to be able to talk to your friends and not rack up a huge phone bill while doing it. Also, the fact that it was a new form of communication made it that much more exciting. Being able to talk to people and not respond right away; being able to think about how you want to answer a question made it great to work with. I have had my screen name identity for many years now and I probably will keep it for a few more at least. Now I don’t tend to use it as much because I don’t feel the need to create a new online identity and I only keep mine for communication purposes, which is why I think most people create theirs too but after a while it tends to get more involved than just having a basis of communication. In today’s society there is not only one way to accomplish these online identities; we have MySpace, Facebook and so on. I recently created a Facebook account which I am very eerie of and keep it as private as possible. I may never fully understand why people feel the need to create a new online identity. All I know is that there can be several pros and cons to it.
MySpace and Facebook have become so popular that they are essentially internet societies/communities. They allow not only to talk to people, but provide news feeds that connects you to your friends and to the groups you belong to. They leave it up to you to put down whatever personal information you want to provide to others. I remember that with AIM it was never like that, you could leave away messages telling others what you were doing but there wasn’t an in depth profile created for others to view. In comparing the two, they both allow free communication and response on your own time. Both of them also establish online reputations. It’s hard to find other people on AIM with out asking where as on Facebook you can be easily found by doing a search and you don’t have to be in the same Facebook community to find them. These internet identities can be set up in a way that can be unfair. An example would be that if I am on AIM, I don’t have to act like my real self; I can pretend to be someone else. On Facebook you could easily embellish your personal information so it can be someone else and not the real you. It’s amazing that by simply reading what someone else wrote we are able to get the jest of the type of person he or she may be by noting the tone and words used. A reputation is established when others trust you and continue to contact you via AIM, Facebook, or so on.
However reputations can go wrong. Identity theft may be an issue as well as the creation of fake identities. By representing yourself virtually, you take that chance of identity theft. People may have a lot to benefit from stealing your online identity and precautions should be made in case that ever happens. I try to make my Facebook profile fairly uninteresting and I feel that if a person wants to really get to know me, they can’t do it through a Facebook profile. Creating fake Facebook profiles I think can be highly deceivable and dangerous. I had a friend that created a fake Facebook profile so she could keep tabs on her ex-boyfriend’s whereabouts and his latest conquest(s). That is a huge ethical violation in my book, and how would you think a person would feel if they were Facebook friends with a fake identity? What if someone found out? What does that do to you? The trust that you had established with that person is gone and you will definitely be more aware of yours and other online identities.
As much good will come with online identities as bad and it depends on the ethics of the individual. It’s up to individuals and their ethics of how they go about using these societies.