Topic 2; Reflective summary of the topic
In the end of the topic we were given Monday two weeks ago, I am reflecting back on the past two weeks I have been working on the topic ‘online identities – security and privacy’.
When writing my own blog post about this topic the first week, I had many thoughts and no idea which one to choose. I read a book on social media that made me want to do my blog post about straight forward ‘Multiple online identities – good or bad?’ My main focus were on your online and offline identity and how the interactions between these could change your ‘online identity’ and whether or not it made it a trustable/real one.
After doing some further research from peers’ blog posts and discussions on each other’s blogs, I have a little bit of a different view on this than when I wrote my own post. I still believe it is possible to create and maintain several online identities, but this is perhaps not that common as having multiple ‘partial online identities’. Some other blog posts focused on the security and privacy threats when using the internet with your identity out there, and other posts about anonymity vs. authenticity online.
Now, I believe that separating having one or multiple online identities is not a black and white definition. I believe there are some grey sones in between ‘possible’ and ‘not possible’ spectrum. I say this, because everyone is using the internet in different amounts and for different purposes.
I believe if you use social media and the internet for different purposes you might have created many ‘partial online identities’.
If you have two completely different sides/versions of yourself out on the internet, I would say you have ‘multiple online identities’, however; in order to achieve this, all of your ‘versions’ should consist of (some of) the different elements/characteristics that creates an online identity.
If you want to become a trustable person online, your online and offline identity should match up if they interact online somehow. If you achieve a match in these, you would most likely have created an ‘authentic’ online identity.
