To many, the Internet is God sent. It has made our lives so convenient and has drastically changed the way we live. Shopping has been taken online, socializing and meeting new people can be done online, even such a personal and high security activity like banking can be done online today. However, can we really go about doing all our activities via this medium, which disallows us from seeing or knowing for sure whom the other party across the net really is? Perhaps what is lurking at the back of our minds while we lead our virtual lives today, is the question of identity – The online identity. This paper will discuss the issues of reputation and deception with regards to the freedom and ease of creating online identities.
In the physical world, it is easy to recognize and acknowledge people as themselves when we see them due to their physical attributes. However when interacting online, people need to create a certain character or personality to create a presence. In instances where Internet users rather not use their real identities, they create for themselves an online identity, which is a “social identity that network users establish in online communities” (“Online Identity”, 2007). Two types of online identities are pseudonyms and avatars. In lieu of their real names, Internet users use pseudonyms, which are like aliases that people use online. These pseudonyms “reveal varying amounts of personally identifiable information” of the users (“Online Identity”, 2007). Avatars on the other hand, are not names or words but icon-sized graphic images that Internet users can use to represent themselves visually.
Identity plays a key role in virtual communities (Donath, 1996). Everyone of us who owns an email account, owns an online identity. With blogs, forums, and social networks like Friendster and Myspace, being all the rage these days, many people are taking on different online identities when they enter different online sites. This is because, usernames are needed when signing up for an account at a new website and the information required to be given is often the user’s email address. The username is the equivalent to one’s name and email address the equivalent to one’s home address of sort. Thus, one can easily adopt a brand new identity by merely creating another account with a different username.
So, what exactly is the danger of people having the freedom of creating multiple different identities for themselves? I believe the main purpose to that is none other than to deceive. Owning a “fake” online identity gives us the power to trick others into believing what we want them to believe or perceive us to be. Examples of false identities are rampent in IRC chatrooms. Most people log onto IRC and join chatrooms, identitiable only by their nicknames or pseudonyms. Such pseudonyms can be considered what is termed as, conventional signals. According to Donath (1996), “Conventional signals are open to deception” where the user of that particular pseudonym need not possess the trait in order to make the signal which in this case, is his or her own chat room nickname. A nickname like “Boy_19” would suggest the user to be a 19-year-old male, and “Ballerina_87”, a 20-year-old female who loves ballet. However, all these attributes we assume to be true may be merely a scam and part of the other party’s plan to trick or deceive us.
In the physical world, it is easy to recognize and acknowledge people as themselves when we see them due to their physical attributes. However when interacting online, people need to create a certain character or personality to create a presence. In instances where Internet users rather not use their real identities, they create for themselves an online identity, which is a “social identity that network users establish in online communities” (“Online Identity”, 2007). Two types of online identities are pseudonyms and avatars. In lieu of their real names, Internet users use pseudonyms, which are like aliases that people use online. These pseudonyms “reveal varying amounts of personally identifiable information” of the users (“Online Identity”, 2007). Avatars on the other hand, are not names or words but icon-sized graphic images that Internet users can use to represent themselves visually.
Identity plays a key role in virtual communities (Donath, 1996). Everyone of us who owns an email account, owns an online identity. With blogs, forums, and social networks like Friendster and Myspace, being all the rage these days, many people are taking on different online identities when they enter different online sites. This is because, usernames are needed when signing up for an account at a new website and the information required to be given is often the user’s email address. The username is the equivalent to one’s name and email address the equivalent to one’s home address of sort. Thus, one can easily adopt a brand new identity by merely creating another account with a different username.
So, what exactly is the danger of people having the freedom of creating multiple different identities for themselves? I believe the main purpose to that is none other than to deceive. Owning a “fake” online identity gives us the power to trick others into believing what we want them to believe or perceive us to be. Examples of false identities are rampent in IRC chatrooms. Most people log onto IRC and join chatrooms, identitiable only by their nicknames or pseudonyms. Such pseudonyms can be considered what is termed as, conventional signals. According to Donath (1996), “Conventional signals are open to deception” where the user of that particular pseudonym need not possess the trait in order to make the signal which in this case, is his or her own chat room nickname. A nickname like “Boy_19” would suggest the user to be a 19-year-old male, and “Ballerina_87”, a 20-year-old female who loves ballet. However, all these attributes we assume to be true may be merely a scam and part of the other party’s plan to trick or deceive us.
Because of the bad reputation IRC has earned itself, thanks to the “baddies” preying on impressionable young girls seeking fun online, it is the first thing that comes to mind when we speak of deception and online identities. What doesn’t occur to us however is that problems pertaining to false online identities and deception are not only pertinent to IRC chat rooms; web logs, forums and online social networks are not spared either. The one online identity I am most familiar with would have to be the identity reflected via my very own personal blog.
My blog is essentially the tangible version of my character and personality. It reflects so much of me, and I guess you can say, “Sam, I can read you like an open book!” when you browse through my blog. Like most bloggers, my blog consists of my photographs, memories, experiences, my likes and dislikes, and even personal thoughts. Important dates, people, places and activities are also listed in there. It has come to a point where one wouldn’t even need to meet me to know me. It is simply because of that, I am aware that my online identity could easily be stolen. What reputation I have built, and image that I have established, could be destroyed by someone armed with a computer and the luxury of some free time.On top of reading my profile and blog entries, a third party could find out even more about me by reading my friends’ blogs, which I have linked to mine as well as skim though my tag board which displays interaction between my friends and I. With all the essential information about me, that identity “thief” could pose as me at other online sites or forums that I frequent. The danger here, lies in the scary fact that while posing as me, these thieves could interact with my friends online and in turn retrieve even more of my personal information. With the information obtained, “reputation theft” would be as simple as ABC.
“As a new and specialized form of identity theft, "reputation theft" could occur when someone successfully hijacks the reputational characteristics of another” (Kaye, 2004; Newitz, 2003). With that, the thief could assume my identity and practice “reputation theft” in one of the forums I frequent and also possibly pull off a Troll under my identity.
Identity deception is exactly what the game of trolling is about, “albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players. The troll attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group's common interests and concerns” and is made to leave when the newsgroup members have identified him as one (Donath, 1996). As I have established a reputation in some of the forums I frequent, it would be a nightmare to find my identity stolen and end up being accused of trolling. As Donath (1996) has stated, “being branded a troll is quite damaging to one's online reputation.” Besides being labeled a troll, the reputation that I have established in those forums would be destroyed and I would have to go through the trouble and agony of creating a brand new account with a brand new username and start building up my reputation from scratch again.
This situation may be hypothetical but should not be dismissed as ideas of an overly imaginative or paranoid person. In the virtual world, these concerns are definitely relevant and thus, we should look out for our safety and learn to protect our identities and ourselves while we continue to dwell in cyberspace.
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References
Donath, J.S. (1996) “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community” Retrieved February 16, 2007 from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
Masum, H and Zhang, Y.C. (2004) “Manifesto for the Reputation Society” Retrieved February 16, 2007 from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
Newitz, A. (2003) "Defenses lacking at social network sites," Retrieved
February 19, 2007, from http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7739
Online identity. (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:28, February 17, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999
