So what did I take away from this topic: online identities?
- The pros and cons about having more than one online identity.
- The relativity of having online identities to everyone as they can easily incorporate their personal experiences to the content.
Before being introduced to this topic, I never knew that my use of social platforms such as Instagram and Facebook is akin to creating multiple online identities. I have never spent much thought on this but after self-research and cross reading of blogs, I gained a much deeper understanding on the term online identity.
After reading Klarissa’s blog, I realised that anonymity also has the offset of encouraging cyber-bullying. Anonymous users wouldn’t need to fear being apprehended for posting insulting comments because they can switch between identities easily. According to Costa and Torres (2011), people can easily accessible photo and document sharing services, connecting them more than ever but this also makes them more vulnerable.
From Angeline’s post, I can see that she supports having multiple online identities. She came up with a strong point saying that 60% of employers actually use social networks as a screening tool. Personally the last thing I would wish for is for my future employers to deem me unsuitable for the job because of a picture from my private life. There’s a quote in her post: “Different sites, different audience, different purposes” and this perfectly describes that situation where the user should only divulge selected information to selected audiences.
To sum it up, I now have a greater insight on what online identities actually represent. Having one or many online identities is not really the issue but rather how it is used that determines the good or bad. If everyone uses the web with integrity, many issues would naturally be resolved. (300 words)
Blogs I commented on:
References:
Costa and toress (2011) To be or not to be, the importance of Digital Identity in the networked society, avaliable at: http://eft.educom.pt/index.php/eft/article/view/216/126