In today’s world it is so easy to be anyone you want to be because of the internet. Everyone is associated with some form of online identity on the internet. The problem is though, how do we know who we are associating with. The identities that people take on can be sometimes misleading. How do we know who the right people are and who are the bad people corrupting the internet? And the answer is, we don’t. We take risks each time we associate with people we don’t know on the internet, hoping that they are who they say they are. Communicating on the internet is very different from communicating with another in person or over the phone. During these activities you know who you are talking to, unlike on the internet where you may have no idea who the person is that you’re communicating with or conveying information to. In Donath’s article “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community” he says that “knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating and interaction.” If this was true then why do people communicate with people online? And the answer is because you are able to participate in a whole new world that you might not be able to participate in, in the actual world. The point to most online Identities is to hide who you truly are and become and anonymous user. According to Wikipedia, with online identities, people are allowed to redefine themselves in any manner that they wish.
Redefinition of ones self can be a good but can also be bad. When you take on an Online Identity you are able to be someone that you aren’t or you’re able to enhance or better yourself. This form of identity could be good if you wanted to explore something that you felt you could never do being your normal self. A person could use Myspace or facebook to create a new image that would make that person feel better about themselves. Also, by pretending to be someone else, a person might gain the confidence to do things and say things that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to say. The downside of online identities is that because you don’t know who you’re communicating with, you may be taken advantage of, or be lied to. Everyone who is using the internet is not using it for good reasons. There are people out there who are using the internet to take your information, there are people there trying to convince you to do things you know are wrong. There are many different kinds of people using the internet, but you have no way of knowing who they truly are unless you know them and have met them in person.
One online identity that I use everyday is my Instant Message screen name. The name I use, haberb1872, is taken from my name and my address, but yet it still hides who I truly am. No one I talk to would know who I am unless I told them. It is almost impossible to know who I am from this ten letter identity, unless I gave them my information. With this screen name I can become anyone I want to be.
One problem though with having a screen name is that you have the risk of someone trying to steal your name and pretending to be you. According to the term “identity theft” on Wikipedia there are four types of identity theft. The one that would be associated with this type of identity theft would be identity cloning. Identity cloning is a person is trying to become you, in the sense of using you’re name but not you as a person. If someone took my screen name and started to pretend to be me, this could be bad because they could be using my name to send out bad messages or use it to harass other people. This in return would make me look like a bad person to other users. And this is never a good thing. No matter how hard you try to keep your identity yours, there is always a risk of someone intercepting it to use it for bad. There is no way to stop this from happening, you just have to try your best and go along with life.
References:
Donath, Judith (1997, November, 12). Identity and deception in the virtual community. Communities in Cyberspace, Retrieved February 22, 2007, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
Identity theft. (2007, February 21). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:41, February 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Identity_theft&oldid=109824112
Online identity. (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:42, February 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999
In today’s world it is so easy to be anyone you want to be because of the internet. Everyone is associated with some form of online identity on the internet. The problem is though, how do we know who we are associating with. The identities that people take on can be sometimes misleading. How do we know who the right people are and who are the bad people corrupting the internet? And the answer is, we don’t. We take risks each time we associate with people we don’t know on the internet, hoping that they are who they say they are. 
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