{"id":170,"date":"2015-02-21T23:38:36","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T23:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sarahkyle27.wordpress.com\/?p=101"},"modified":"2015-02-21T23:38:36","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T23:38:36","slug":"discuss-the-arguments-for-and-against-having-more-than-one-online-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/2015\/02\/21\/discuss-the-arguments-for-and-against-having-more-than-one-online-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Discuss the arguments for and against having more than one online identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post primarily focuses on online personas, arguing that in terms of professionalism, there is value in having multiple online identities and potential drawbacks to being anonymous.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An online persona can be defined as \u2018a partial identity created by you to represent yourself in a specific situation\u2019.[1]<\/a> \u00a0Examples of personas include social networking accounts, such as Facebook, or online blogs.[2]<\/a> \u00a0Julia Allison argues \u2018we should maintain many identities \u2013 one for work, another for school, another for home, another for friends\u2019.[3]<\/a> \u00a0In terms of professional and personal online personas, I can relate. \u00a0I use LinkedIn to maintain a professional, online relationship with colleagues and contacts and the content and information I share is different to that on Facebook (where I have created a personal online persona).<\/p>\n

We\u2019re always being told (and warned) that potential employers will be looking for us online.\u00a0 Our digital identity is formed of both presentation and reputation, where management of our personas that \u2018can impact our activity both face to face and online\u2019.[4]<\/a> \u00a0Digitial Trends <\/em>has a great article here<\/a><\/strong><\/span> showing how poor digital management of online identity affects employment. However, what we\u2019re not told is that being anonymous online is met with equal suspicion.\u00a0 This is since Facebook successfully promoted the idea of transparent identity as authentic identity.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Pixabay<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Though no one is ever truly anonymous whilst using the internet, (Internet Society <\/em>comments how partial identities are formed every time we use the internet in an \u2018exchange\u2019 of information), Andrew Lewman argues for total anonymity over any online persona.\u00a0 He argues anonymity \u2018gives people control\u2019.[6]<\/a> \u00a0A refusal to create an online persona is a characteristic that hints to digital visitors<\/a><\/span>, whereas people that have multiple online personas seem behaviourally more like digital residents<\/a><\/span> (as discussed last week).\u00a0 The positives of embracing multiple and open identities is allowing greater engagement with larger online communities. Costa and Torres similarly argue it \u2018advance[s] knowledge\u2019 (50).<\/p>\n

Having multiple online identities can even grant fame.\u00a0 More than ever, people are being \u2018internet famous\u2019, launching a career through blogging or vlogging.\u00a0 Two of my housemates love Tuula<\/a><\/span> \u2013 an online travel blogger, whose website links to her other online personas: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.\u00a0 Though many like her become famous due to their \u2018personal\u2019 online personas rather than \u2018professional\u2019 ones, their online presentation and reputation is certainly not overlooked.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Internet Society, \u2018Online Identity Overview: What is Partial Identity\u2019,<http:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/online-identity-overview<\/a>><\/em><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Internet Society, \u2018Online Identity Overview: What is Partial Identity\u2019, <http:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/online-identity-overview<\/a>><\/em><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jeff Jarvis, \u2018One identity or more?\u2019,<\/em> (2011) < http:\/\/buzzmachine.com\/2011\/03\/08\/one-identity-or-more\/<\/a>><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cristina Costa and Ricardo Torres, \u201cTo be or not to be? The importance of digital identity in the networked society\u201d,<\/em> \u00a0(2011), p.49. \u00a0<http:\/\/eft.educom.pt\/index.php\/eft\/article\/view\/216\/126<\/a>>\u00a0 Subsequent references are to this edition and are given in parentheses.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Alex Kroski, \u2018Online identity: is authenticity or anonymity more important?\u2019,<\/em> (2012)<http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/technology\/2012\/apr\/19\/online-identity-authenticity-anonymity<\/a>><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Alex Kroski, \u2018Online identity: is authenticity or anonymity more important?<\/em>\u2019 (2012) <http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/technology\/2012\/apr\/19\/online-identity-authenticity-<\/a>anonymity<\/a>><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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This post primarily focuses on online personas, arguing that in terms of professionalism, there is value in having multiple online identities and potential drawbacks to being anonymous. An online persona can be defined as ‘a partial identity created by you to represent yourself in a specific situation’.[1]  Examples of personas include social networking accounts, such […]\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1031484],"tags":[264216],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-topic-2-2015","tag-uosm2008","column","threecol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":975,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2008-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}