multiple online identities: a reflection.

This week on my blog I explored the idea of having multiple online identities, an idea for me at first that conjured up images of identity theft and “catfishing”.

The more I read however, the more I realised that I myself have multiple online identities, whether it be for professional purposes when I use LinkedIn or for more personal ones when I am on Facebook. After considering the idea expressed by Liz Gannes that the internet allows for many outlets for self-expression I stated in my blog post that it was important to have multiple identities when using the web; disagreeing with Mark Zuckerburg’s claim that having more than one online identity demonstrates a “lack of integrity”.

I was actually quite surprised at some of the other blog posts that I read on the topic. Dominic’s blog in particular raised some new issues that I hadn’t yet thought about, such as the controversial requirement of identification by the government in some countries in order to have a social network account, which as I mentioned in my comment on his blog does seem extreme, but Dominic was able to contextualise it in a way that meant it seemed like quite a good idea.

On the other hand, I engaged in an interesting debate with Anna as our views on the way in which we should use personal social media accounts differed greatly. Anna held the opinion that “all our online presence should be professional” whereas I really didn’t agree. I believe that different social networks offer us different things; Facebook, a social network born from a Harvard University student wanting an easier way for his peers to connect, should definitely be used in a different way – with a different “personality” – to sites such as LinkedIn, a socio-professional network.

photo credit: nan palmero via photopin cc