Saturday, October 17, 2009

Do You Know Who You're Chatting With?






The word 'identity' is simply put as the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another (Dictionary.com). So what does identity have to do with the internet? Well, the internet creates an environment in which users can become whoever they want to be, without anyone ever knowing the difference.
So when a user is presented with a new account or profile, it can be compared to having a blank canvas to work with. In creating this new online identity the media is very influential in the development of this.




















It will be sufficed to say that in creating a social network account whether, it is to the likes of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail or any other internet society, our identity can and will be easily altered by the 'media/internet-saturated’ society we live in. This invariably means we can become who we want, when we want with new identities shaped by what we see, read, hear or discover along the path of the digital era.

In real life young children can change their identity throughout puberty and then have different identities when they cross the line into adulthood. Moreover, in the virtual world our identity is something constructed over time and subsequently can be frequently updated or revamped according to our personal preferences.


























Within this philosophy however, it is crucial to understand that identity is not a fixed thing and is just as difficult to maintain as it is in creating one in the first instance. Actually, a second life seems to offer us many things that we are deprived of in our first, mainly being liberty to portray ourselves through our avatars in any way which we may so desire.













So friends I leave you with the notion that while it may be fun creating new identities as a regular means of self expression or even escapism it can also be dangerous to the effect that often striking a balance between the personal identity and the virtual identity may become somewhat difficult.






10 comments:

  1. Good work guys!!!!!! Nice updates!

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  2. Nicely done...makes poeople want to second think who they are talkin to on all these social networking sites

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  3. all this stuff on the internet is making people crazy!!

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  4. I agree with Anonymous, this internet is truly making people crazy, and its amazing how easy it is to be anyone you want, when you want. There's no way of knowing that I am not who I say I am...my pics are there, my passwords, usernames, and status are all there to justify that I am who I say I am. Can you truly say and prove am not?

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  5. Yea I agree...it is crazy, and we really don't have anyway of knowing who's who. But then the internet and its millions of networks have introduced us to the world. I guess its simple and fit to sum it up as "everything good thing has a fault".

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  6. Great work guys!!....can't wait to read the next update.People just go past these facts when they really shouldn't. Keep it up!

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  7. The sad part guys, is that we give them all the information...

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  8. Facebook is literally a part of a lot of people's daily lives today...it's like the modern "dinner & a movie." U kno how ppl act when they forget their cell phone home n do as if their gonna die? It's the same way ppl react when they go a day without cheking up on their facebook account...It's just a website that allows ppl to let the world know their every thought n allow others "maco."

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  9. lol hilarious but true! Our real selves vs our fb selves

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  10. love it we really need to be aware of the facebook karmic law what we put out there is definitely going to come back tenfold lol!

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