Topic 2 : One or More Online Identity?

” ARE YOU WHO YOU ARE ONLINE AND OFFLINE? ” 

What is online identity? Online identity is the information on the Internet about an individual. It is the sum of your characteristics and behaviour online. It can be your username, IP-address, pictures, demographics, interests, tags, purchasing history, search history and published text etc.

Is it fine to have more than one online identity?

“Actually, this was the norm for almost all of internet history,” (danah boyd, a social media researcher for Microsoft Research)

Different sites, different audiences, different purposes.

The reason why one creates multiple online identity is anonymity. Anonymity keeps you away from online fraud, criticism, the government etc.

Source : ( Source : Pew’s research centre’s internet and America life project Omnibus survey, conducted July11-14 2013)

 “The ability to be anonymous is increasingly important because it gives people control, it lets them be creative, it lets them figure out their identity and explore what they want to do, or to research topics that aren’t necessarily ‘them’ and may not want tied to their real name for perpetuity,” (Andrew Lewman, executive director of the Tor Project)

What are you using the web for? personal? professional? or both? Having multiple online identities allow  you to ‘separate’ personal and professional lives.

Source : Northern Eastern University Career development

With the rise of technology, anything published in the web is traceable. Hence, it is important to identify the purpose and insert the right content in the web. For example, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter all sets different purposes to the users. On social Media like Facebook, Instagram and twitter content shared is more care-free and less serious. Quirky photos and captions can be shared. However, on professional site like LinkedIn, information and photos should be address in formality.

Moreover, more employers are using social network to reference check potential employees. Therefore this encourages the use of multiple online identities so as to clearly separate personal and professional lives.

According to CareerBuilder’s annual social media recruitment survey of more than 2,000 hiring managers and HR professionals and more than 3,000 full-time U.S. workers, 60 percent of employers revealed they use social networking sites to research job candidates. (Source : CareerBuilder’s annual social media recruitment survey)

On the other hand, having more than on online identity can also reduce accountability and this will affect job opportunities. Having multiple online identities shows insecurity and that there may be some things to hid. Mentioned above, this could greatly affect one’s probability of getting a job.

In conclusion, having multiple online identities is ultimately up to the user. Depending on situation and circumstances, one should see the pros and cons before creating multiple identities.

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References: 

1. McDonnell, Amy. “60% Employers Use Social Media To Screen Job Candidates -“. Thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.
2. “Having Multiple Online Identities Is More Normal Than You Think”. Engadget. N.p., 2016. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.
3. “Forbes Welcome”. Forbes.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.
4. Krotoski, Aleks. “Online Identity: Is Authenticity Or Anonymity More Important?”. the Guardian. N.p., 2016. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.