Why have more than one online Identity
We live in a world where you can type someone’s name into a search engine and find very detailed information about them in seconds via Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn profiles. This has caused identity management on the internet to be a key aspect to understand.
Through the ease of access to information on the web, people have begun to create more than one identity that they are associated with. Most commonly, people will separate their social lives with their profession/business lives creating a separate account for banking, work recourse and social activities. Then there are people that create a whole new identity on the web. They would keep their personal lives away and separated themselves from it allowing them to be free to discuss sensitive subjects freely without any impact on their personal lives.
How to build a bold online identity and how easy it really is.
However, keeping track of all the information related to each of the identities can be rather hard. Remembering different email addresses, passwords or even information that has been shared can be hard and could lead to the loss of the information or confusion between accounts. Having a single account can help keep control over the information and gives it a lot more security.
The digital footprint that a user leaves behind has made it very hard for a person to have more than one identity however. Unless the user is actively looking to reduce their digital footprint then there will always be something that ties their identities together.
The argument of managing more than on online identity has a lot of support and opposition and two very influential people on the web have both voiced their opinion. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of popular social networking site Facebook has freely spoken his mind on online identities, seeing it as having a lack of identity to have more than one online persona. On the other side of the argument, Christopher Poole, the founder of the online image board 4chan is very compassionate about his view that people need more than one online identity.
An interesting debate on Identity against Anonymity. (Contains some Strong Language)
References
Anthony Ha. 2011. 4chan founder: Zuckerberg is “totally wrong” about online identity. [ONLINE] Available at: http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/13/4chan-moot-christopher-poole-sxsw/. [Accessed 22 February 15]
Michael Zimmer. 2010. Facebook’s Zuckerberg: “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity”. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.michaelzimmer.org/2010/05/14/facebooks-zuckerberg-having-two-identities-for-yourself-is-an-example-of-a-lack-of-integrity/. [Accessed 22 February 15].
