People in the digital world has an online identity that represent their own set of characteristics and behavior of their activities on the web. Some may adopt a single identity on the Internet whilst others may create multiple identities to ensure a clear distinctions for the purposes of that specific identity.
(Source: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/?sm=JrY0yjZhhJKVmTe1YNO%2bIxVWCvVHoU93IDkjUuhjmvg%3d )
Our online identities’ information are valuable to businesses or advertisers to allow them to better personalized an experience catered to our characteristics or to allow them to market products which they feel are attractive to us by evaluating the information we place on our profiles.
There are definitely risks that come along with the information that we place on our online identities. Some people will make use of our information to conduct illegal activities such as online frauds or scams. It is our responsibility in taking concern to what type of information we choose to include in our online identities and to evaluate the credibility of certain websites before creating a profile.
Single or Multiple Identities?
Single identity is having the same identity for all purposes used on the Internet and tends to be more realistic towards our actual real life identity. It gives others the idea that you’re a reliable person and your activities in the digital world is credible.
On the other hand, multiple identities is having different identities for different purposes used on the Internet and the identities usually have clear distinctions from each other. It may or may not necessarily portray the real identity of ourselves in the real world.
I personally feel that having multiple identities is more favorable than a single identity. Multiple identities helps to provide more privacy and distinction for an individual as you can choose the type of information you wish to expose to the group of people that are able to view that identity. E.g. placing more of my personal lifestyle on Instagram. At the same time, multiple identities also prevent others from easily imitating your identity which lower the risk of illegal activities.
Therefore, it will be recommended for an individual to portray their identities in the digital world differently and to only portray their real identity in the real world. It’s never a good idea to fully portray your real self in the digital world. Learn to protect yourself, just like how you will never divulge too much personal information to someone you don’t know in the real world. It works the same way!
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References:
Cristina Costa, R. T. (2011). To be or not to be, the importance of digitial identity in the networked society. 7.
Krotoski, A. (2012, April 19). Online Identity: is authenticity or anonymity more important? Retrieved from The guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/apr/19/online-identity-authenticity-anonymity
Privacy and Identity. (n.d.). Retrieved from Internet Society: http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/internet-technology-matters/privacy-identity
YJunNing 
Hello Jun Ning!
Enjoyed reading your post as we both share the same point of views towards the question! I agree that I would prefer different identities for different images that I want to portray to different people.
But we have to consider this point since we agree on having multiple identities is more favourable. As we know there are many third party companies that tracks all of our digital footprints for each identity, there can be possibility that they can pin all information gathered to figure out our offline(real) identity?
Yes, there’s always risk in placing our information online. Agree, agree, agree!! There’s no guarantees that our information is protected, even when the terms and conditions stated when signing up or creating an identity.
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Hi Emilia!
Thank you for your valuable comments!
Yes I believe that third party companies are able to pin all information gathered to figure out our real identity since the more information there are, the more richer their evaluation of our identity will be more closer to the real us. But then, it may not really be accurate or even near close to our actual real identities as what we show on our online identities is what we came out with, there’s a possibility that some people may completely portray a very different identity in the digital world. So there’s still reliability issues that comes about with the online identities we give ourselves.
I hope I managed to answer your question!
Thank you!
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Hi Jun Ning!
I have enjoyed reading your post on your take regarding having multiple online identities. As much as our information is important to us, you have mentioned that it is also important for businesses in order to provide us consumers an overall better experience during our transactions with them. That point that has helped me understand better why more businesses now are improving their technology in order to safeguard us consumers’ information.
You have also mentioned that one should ‘portray ourselves differently online and only portray our real self in real life’. Although that may be true to a certain extent, I feel that how we manage our identities online is what matters and not about ‘portraying ourselves differently’. Simple steps such as uploading a photo but not tagging the location enables us to still be ourselves yet minimize any security issues. It’s all about managing the content!
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Cheers.
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Hello Nicole!
Thank you for your constructive comment!
Yes I agree that it is more critical to manage our identities online effectively instead of portraying ourselves differently. What I meant of portraying ourselves differently is more of like what I mentioned about how you will never divulge too much personal information to someone you don’t know in the real world.
E.g. When you first know someone, you tend to be more awkward in front of him/her and only after several interactions, you will display a more truthful side of yourself to him/her.
But the digital world is exposed to every one who has access to it, so I feel it’s important that you do not portray the full real characteristics of yourself as it will bring along several risks.
Hope that clarifies the bubble!
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Sup Jun Ning~
I like how you clearly listed out the pros and cons of our online identity, where by both see us as profits but goes by different means to earn it. It is inevitable to erases off all of our digital footsteps but with the correct use by organizations, accurate hypothesis can be achieve to help design the products and services we all are looking forward to and it also helps to reduce on the cost to making additional surveys.
However, with the wrong use, we all knows it will end up with online scams and fraud. Specifically. we should pay more attention to sites where we do our shopping on, cause we will need to input our payment details. Such as looking out for the green lock icon on the address bar, which means there is a secure socket layer where by payment information transferred is encrypted thus information won’t be leaked.
I believe having a single account on each of the different platform will still be referred to having a single identity, where having more than a single account on a social media platform is multiple identities, example on Facebook, Easter Lim is my professionally maintained account where CarlsbergEaster is another accounts with all my partying images. This might cause adverse effect on the mental health and stress it brings to the user, do you agree?
Cheers to more great post~
Easter
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Hello Easter!
Great to see your comment on my post!
I do agree with what you mentioned about looking out for the green lock icon when shopping online, because I does that too! I wouldn’t want my credit card details to be exposed to the hands of illegal means. Its always better to be safe than sorry.
In regards to having adverse effect and stress that multiple identities brings to people, I strongly feel that we should only do what makes us happy. If there’s so much stress in trying to manage the online identity, then one should probably just stop there and remove that identity. Like how some famous bloggers are always flamed for displaying what people wants to see and not showing the real side of themselves, I believe they don’t feel good about it as well and maybe this is also one of the reason why some people will stop being a blogger. As long as its something you’re comfortable with and its legal, I believe it will be alright.
Cheers!
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