What does it mean by online identity?
Image Taken from: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/19/identity-on-the-internet-the-pros-and-cons-of-anonymity/
Before discussing about the argument for and against having more than one online identity, we must first know what does it means. Online identity is a “persona” that is developed online based on what we are doing online be it searching for articles or communicating through social Medias. Based on an article online – “online identity is the sum of your characteristics and interactions”. An example would be going to EBay to buy a product.
What you are doing online provides information for the website with “cookies” so that the website can be personalized for your use. It is similar to how it is unique for everyone. However, there are chances that we are unable to control the information that are being stored into the website.
Moving onto the main topic of having a single identity or multiple identity. By having a multiple identity, it questions our online persona between authenticity and anonymity.
Arguments for having more than one online identity
With different personas, it helps to give privacy to oneself in a way that different accounts are created for different set of people. Example would be working colleagues and personal friends. Having said that, different account helps to prevent the other party from knowing things like a complaint against a certain colleague or friend. We often do not wish to associate our personal and working life together. However, if the same username is used for different social medias, it can tell people about their personality, who they are and who they want to be.
Arguments against having more than one online identity
With multiple accounts, it makes people to wonder if it is the “real” you. Because there are many different accounts created, it makes people unsure of the validity of the account. It lacks of the integrity such that people do not know whether if it is your account or not and might leak away job opportunities. Single identity can cause trouble since it is tied to your name such that you can be judged based on what is done online.
Conclusion
Having discussed, I believed that multiple online identities should be embraced as this allows me to show a different side to different set of people. Such as a professional profile as a marketer and a friendly side to my family and friends. By separating work and social life, it will definitely show the professionalism of an individual.
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References:
Internet Society: Understanding your online identity
http://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/Understanding%20your%20Online%20Identity%20An%20Overview%20of%20Identity.pdf , Accessed on 3 November 2015
Building your online identity in 7 steps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UlcOX1fZW4&feature=youtu.be , Accessed on 3 November 2015
Aleks Krotoski, Online identity: Is authenticity or anonymity more important?
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/apr/19/online-identity-authenticity-anonymity , Accessed on 3 November 2015
Internet Society: Privacy & Identity
http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/internet-technology-matters/privacy-identity , Accessed on 3 November 2015
Lifehacker: Should I Keep My Personal and Professional Identities Completely Separate Online?
http://lifehacker.com/5898370/should-i-keep-my-personal-and-professional-identities-completely-separate-online , Accessed on 3 November 2015
Masters, A.(2014). Identity on the Internet: The pros and cons of anonymity. Independent Editor’s choice Blogs[online]
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/09/19/identity-on-the-internet-the-pros-and-cons-of-anonymity/ , Accessed on 3 November 2015
C.WANCHYNG 
Hi Wan Chyng!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on how having multiple identities online is something that is a norm and should be accepted as of now. I too have various online identities and I guess it has something that I have grown so accustom to that it has just been a part of my daily life now.
We all definitely wish to upkeep a professional image and also another more relax image with people whom we are closer with. But have you ever thought about how it would actually make you seem distant? Like you are only showing these certain side of your face cause you’re currently socializing with these certain group? Sometimes I find it pretty tedious to switch back and forth due to the different types of social groups that I hang out with.
Overall, I really feel like that having multiple identities definitely benefits us in terms of relaying certain information to certain type of audience that we wish to reach out to. 🙂
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Hi Shannon!
Great to see you commenting.
It’s great to see that we have various online identities. However, it can also be a bad thing as we need to cater to different group of people.
As per your question, I agree that having many online identities, it indeed make me feel distant in a way that what I am showing online doesn’t actually means what I feel. As we are humans, we have our egos, we tend not to express our troubles and problems online. Furthermore, we tend to show our happy side to everyone. To cater to different group of people, it is indeed tiring but it is a like a way to fit into that group to prevent being judged by people for the way we do stuff. If we only have a single online identity, doesn’t it seems like we are showing it to everyone what we are doing be it ugly or nice? Agree?
Hope to hear more from you! It was a good discussion! 😀
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Hey WanChyng!
First of all I would like to say that your post is very straight to the point and you have given definitions so we would be on the same page if a certain term is used. I have the same views as you! It makes sense and it is rather practical to have 2 identities to maintain professionalism. However, I would like to add on to your arguments for multiple identities.
If you are basing your argument on: “helps to prevent the other party from knowing things like a complaint against a certain colleague or friend” then do you think this can be achieved by enabling privacy settings on the website. For example, Facebook has privacy settings to help us, so how about using this? We do not need to go all the way to create another identity if it is going to be more tedious managing 2 identities.
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Hi Renu!
Great to see you commenting.
Glad to see that we are on the same page. And thank you for saying that my post are straight to the point.
As to your question, I agree that we can use Facebook privacy setting. But what if we added other colleagues and we do not want that specific person to know? If we prevent that single person from viewing, other colleagues will be able to let he/she know. Even if we do not set a certain privacy setting, I think it would be better if we do not complain about other people online. Don’t you think it will be better?
Even though it is tedious to manage multiple identities, but it will still be able to portray our professionalism.
Hope it answers to your question! 😀
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Yup, that makes sense actually! Perhaps, without effort we can get what we want riight!!
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