Online identity. Are you REALLY who you say you are?
March 12, 2008
All morning, ive been looking for a clip, something to illustrate how people change their identities online and pretend to be someone they’re not, be it a prank, movie, advert or documentry. This video basically says it all.
With so many social netwoking sites such as facebook, my space, friendster, high5, Zorpia ( and the list goes on..), people are so many avenues to socialize. These sites are extremely beneficial to us as they allow us to find friends whom we’ve not seen for a long time and to reconnect with long lost friends and to meet new people. Chatting roooms like IRC, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger and MSN allows us to interact with people without having to wait for a long time for replies like the email, thus the name ‘instant messaging’. These are all collectively know as Computer Mediated Communication.
Many enjoy using these programmes as it allows one to keep in touch with friends and meet new people without having to physically meet them and to reveal their true selves as it all takes place on the virtual platform known as ‘cyberspace’. Cyberspace affects not only how we communicate but what we communicate as well. Seeing that the individuals we might interact with have never met us and do now know how we look like, it is easy to tweak soem information about ourselves or even entirely change who we actually are.
In a survey done by ReadWriteWeb, they asked participants if they ever faked all or part of their identity in web activities. Out of 1,545 paricipants 20% said they always use thier own identities. People do this for mulitple reasons. On the internet, an individual can be the person that he or she desires to be. Being insecure about one’s identity could be a cause of this.
In the real world as we know it, people make their initial judgements by the way we look and carry ourslves. In first impressions, looking good and presenting yourself well plays a big role. On the internet, that element is no longer there (with the absence of webcams that is). People also fake their identities to engage in disgraceful acts such as cybersex or old disgusting men preying on young innocent girls and so on..
So although CMC can be beneficial to us, people tend to abuse it which makes it a dangerous and harmful environment.
Be true to yourself. Don’t need to cybersex and flirt and prey on young innocent girls and all ok?
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/fake_web_identity_poll_results.php
halo laura! long long time no see ah… how r u. me now v busy wit work ah. going car and bike. fix them so they look v nice and also more power lo..
my views r v simple lo… internet is good but people like to abuse it. sometimes i also la… use facebook and see other chio girl. its the way i get to see their pic lo and better understand their life mah… but without internet v difficult la the world. cannot play my games anymore. cannot be connected with the world around lo…
so i think we should be happy with internet but dont abuse lo… like drugs la… its good for u… make u feel good but dont abuse lor… haha! i’m like play afool pull leg only la.
ah tong!
good day miss.
cyberspace, excellent. that’s all i can say!
we get to meet many people through various means. eg. chat softwares, online communities, forums and even games.
humans can now finally shield themselves and use electronic means to converse with another through cyberspace without actually conversing face to face. the level of comfort and confidence increases when one sits behind a computer while engaging in a conversation with another person.
you may also want to talk about the over extended use of the internet in means of conversation. some people get too hooked with online chat that they loose or never gain any real-life social or interpersonal skills which is important! they do not know how to express themselves when they meet another party face to face because they have only been using their conversational behavior behind a computer!
cheers!
Yea ben i agree, its something i mentioned in my previous entry. People these days can live solely on communicating through the internet. I for one need to meet people and speak face-to-face. Thanks for your comment though.
And ah tong,
Maybe you should try going out and meeting people instead of bio-ing chio gers online. It’s a lot better, trust me. Try it sometime!