INTRODUCTION ISSUES:
l What is identify? What is a digital or online identify? Different from “in person” identity?
n One definition from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary of identity: “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is, the characteristics determining this.” More simply, one might say your identity is the answer to the question “who are you?”
n Digital or online identity is a portrayal of who you are in a digital or online format. Like any form of identity, this presents only a slice of who you are, and in some ways allows a person to mare carefully control what that presentation of identity is.
l Questions of authenticity
n With the ability to construct your online personas, questions are raised related to the intention behind how this representation or conveyed. Is an online identity a “true” identity or is it something inauthentic, simply constructed by the portrayer.
n “In sum, the selves that we have are composed of multiple identities and contradictory experiences. In late-modern society, it is almost impossible to have a fully unified, completed and coherent ‘self’; rather, we all tend to have fleeting, multiple and contradictory selves”
(Charles Cheung “Presentations of Self on Personal Homepages”, p45)
l Identity convergence is when you have a crossover between different portrayals of your identity. As many people have multiple online identities this becomes a more relevant issue. Some risks that could come along with this would be if one identity is intended for a specific audience but the audience of a different one of a person’s identities encounters both identities they might question the person’s integrity and character through these contrasting portrayals.
l Public vs. private sharing of personal info
n Online identities can blur the line between what we traditionally think of as public vs. private information. It also can challenge comfort zones regarding what we might consider personal spheres.
l Ethics issues
n By placing your identity in a digital format instead of a living format it places this information in a place that can potentially be used by others
n People can hide behind a constructed identity to harm others in ways they might not as their “real life” identities
let's talked about some basic information about Facebook.
according to facebook's own group, it was founded in February 4, 2004
the main ideas of establishing Facebook is:
"...to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected."
a book called Imagained Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on Facebook (http://www.springerlink.com/content/gx00n8nh88252822/fulltext.pdf)states that : FaceBook in U.S. has been wellcome by thousand number of colleges and high schools, its users is over 9 million or even more and more. its penetrates into more than 80% of the undergraduate college students!
->from this statement, we can see that facebook, indeed, set a "more open and connected" world.
"...while the vast majority of messages (of Facebook) are sent to friends (90.6%), a large proportion(41.6%) is sent to friends outside of one’s local network."
from above, it seems that facebook can widen people social circle,
but in the same article, it also states that:
"Interestingly, an increased score on the content gratification scale was negatively related to the number of ‘friends’ reported to be linked to one’s profile. This perhaps suggests a sub-set of users gain gratification through the use of applications within Facebook, rather than through the accrual of ‘friends’...many of the applications available in Facebook ...at present...tend to rely on existing contacts, rather than the accrual of new ‘friends’. As such, they may serve to strengthen social ties, rather than acting to increase the overall size of a social network. Thus, investment of time and effort in social applications within Facebook may be
akin to messaging between friends ...rather than creating new links."
the statement state that people happiness is nothing to do with how many "friends" that they have. those application emerges in facebook is just used for strengthen their own social circle, but not really making new "friends".
the aims of the Facebook may not be able to reach, meanwhile, many inherent problems may arise!
here we've got a interesting clip in Youtube, talking about what things we can do in facebook.
like uploading your photos, adding friends, joining different groups, writting on people's wall, tagging post.
but by the time,, the lyrics of the song uploaded in Youtube points out an important point.
" how do you know this person? did you heard of this person? do u need to request confirmation? or just you think they look cute in the photo they posted on facebook?"
the lyrics points out that people are attracted by others with appealing appearance, but do those photo uploaded in Facebook is one's true self? that remains a questions. Meanwhile, people attentiom other's attention by using celebrities' photo or stealing from orther people's websites may arouse a problem of violation of intellectual perperties!
ethic problem:
forming opposing group to isolate people with different attitude is common in facebook, in which people often comment with hostillity, intend to provoke disputes and humiliate the guy who being isolated, this kind of opposing group constructing online is reguarded as a kind of social isolation or cyber bullying. this offense the mission of Facebook: make the world more open and connected.
identity convergence:
Imagained Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on Facebook also said that also said that :" its privacy default settings are very permeable: ...participants' profiles are searchable by anybody else
on the FB network, and actually readable by any member at the same college and
geographical location. In addition, external access to a college FB community
(e.g., by non-students/faculty/staff/alumni, or by non-college-affiliated individuals)
is so easy , that the network is effectively an open community, and its
data effectively public."
here is a clip about a case in reality proofing that facebook has its own disadvantages
an editor of a famous kid fashion magazine "kongfu"said it is hard to separate her job and private life from facebook. because her staff can add her facebook. by the way, she can't control what her friends said may on her photos and wall. also, she may not be able to stop her friends from uploading some embarassing photos which may demage her image in office.
-> from the evidence above, we can see constructing identities in Facebook gives rase to many sensitive problems like ethics problem, problems of identity convergence and problems of viewing authority.
Reference list:
1) Concise Oxford English Dictionary
2) Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/facebook?v=info)
3) Imagained Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on Facebook
(http://www.springerlink.com/content/gx00n8nh88252822/fulltext.pdf)
4) Facebook Song, Youtube, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSnXE2791yg)
5) Looking at, Looking up or Keeping up with People?: Motives and Uses of Facebook by Adam N Joinson (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.168.3722&rep=rep1&type=pdf)
6) Opposing forum of Amina Mariam Bokhary in Facebook, (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/fan-dui-bao-zhi-jin-zhi-zhi-nu-zhi-pan-gan-hua-ling-fa-kuan-ji-ting-pai-yi-nian-zhi-suo-wei-zhong-pan-xing-fa/149723398374745)
7) Oposing forum of Mrs Chow in Facebook, (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/notes.php?id=118559834822868¬es_tab=app_2347471856)
8) Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on Facebook, (privacy.cs.cmu.edu/dataprivacy/
9) Facebook is good for making friend but may damage the career reputation, Youtube, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsSGiBfowoc)
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