“An online identity is a social identity that network users establish in online communities. Although some people prefer to use their real names online, most Internet users prefer to identify themselves by means of pseudonyms, which reveal varying amounts of personally identifiable information” (“Online Identity”, 2007).
After being enrolled into COM 125 course, I now belong to an online community. I am in the blogosphere. Blogs have allowed me to write down my thoughts, be it for academic purpose or personal interest. Blogging not only helps my friends understand me better, it also enabled the public to view me. Through my blog, I interact with people (even strangers) by replying to the comments they added in my postings. In a way, this chosen identity establishes reputation. From my research, “Reputation is the general opinion (more technically, a social evaluation) of the public toward a person, a group of people, or an organization. It is an important factor in many fields, such as business, online communities or social status” (“Reputation”, 2007)
As stated in the first paragraph, though some people may use their real identity, there are still others who prefer to appear as anonymous. However, “Knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction” (“Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community”, 1996). Hence, identity is important in the virtual world. Identity theft can threaten a person’s credibility and reputation. Personally, I dislike people who use fake identity. This causes online communities to be lack of trust.
"Identity theft/fraud is used to describe cases when means of identification has been exploited for an unlawful purpose. It is believed the thief does deprive the owner of his identity by replacing his reputation with the thief's. This term focus on the act of acquiring the legally attributed personal identifiers and other personal information necessary to perpetrate the personation” (“Online Identity Theft”, 2007). Since I am still a “beginner” in the blogosphere, I only have little and insignificant personal experience of identity theft.
I have friends who are bloggers too. I do view their blogs and leave comments using my “personalized” username. There was once when I was reading my friend’s blog’s comments section and saw a similar username as I do. I was surprised by the rude and insulting content of the comment. I was furious and at the same time quite lost as I could not imagine how many such comments had this “thief” commented (using my username) on others blogs too. This thief definitely tarnished my reputation and caused much misunderstanding between my friend and I, that we nearly ended our friendship because of it. Also, I felt lost as I am afraid that this thief had used my username to purchase things online. I am aware that people do sell things via their blogs as it is free and is convenient. These simple transactions may sometimes be too easy till it is hazardous. However, I was lucky enough for my identity to be only stolen for criticizing others. If not, I could not imagine how much I have to pay when the bills come. (Till now, I am still unsure whether one could assume my identity and shop online while I have to pay for what I have not purchased via blogs.) I guess this is one major disadvantage when I am so unfamiliar with how the net works.
Donath, J.S. (1996, November 12). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved February 23, 2007 from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. (2007, February 15). Online Identity. Retrieved February 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_identity
Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. (2007, February 22). Online Identity Theft. Retrieved February 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_identity_theft
Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. (2007, February 10). Reputation. Retrieved February 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation
3 comments:
Ee Lin: This is a pretty balanced writeup on establishing identities via blogs. I like how you covered the positives of maintaining relationships online via blogs, as well as the ease at which blog comments could be impersonated.
Good job, full grades and a special mention award! :)
Sorry about the missing award. The latest version of Firefox kept crashing on me, thus losing some of the entries I've made earlier. You post has been added now and thanks for letting me know. :)
What do you mean?
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