on blogging and internet identity

 

 

in today’s lecture, we learnt about blogging and internet identity (well it was really about internet identity but whatever…) which brought up some interesting pointers i thought i should just run it through my head a little more.

 

according to the lecturer, identity used to be thought of something as singular, but with time, it is now viewed as a multiple facade avenue. Basically, everyone has a different “identity” when they are approached by different situations/people and thereby it’s more than just ONE identity that a person can hold.

 

but on the internet, identity become something murky. old men like OWA can pretend to be a nubile young lady; people who don’t normally fight back irl might be some “tough e-thug” online (e.g in the games i play, those crazy mofos…) and so on and so forth. While news people have considered it something of a concern, it’s not necessary more dangerous than what real life presents anyways.

 

on that note, i have to point out a few things. on the one hand, it’s true. unless someone send out viruses, to which alot of companies have been set up for security, or worms etc etc, most of the time, meetings offline can be monitored/accompanied/whatever else. i mean, people SHOULD know they shouldn’t meet strangers alone. things do happen, but they aren’t like this huge rampage of dangers… as far as i am concerned anyways. i see more murders and theft done by usual styles of criminal acts than because someone met someone online in the news.

 

admittedly, people have made things alot easier for criminals, or people with ill-will, by putting their rl names online, some are even accompanied by photographs. however, with such exposure, comes responsibilities. most of those that i see with their full names and faces are matured enough to recognise not meeting alone with utter strangers for one, and for another, it is not likely they will meet them in a private zone unaccompanied and un-informed. 

 

on identities though, i had to agree that online personas are sometimes way far removed from their real life personas. for example, in my little gaming world, there are people who chose female characters who are obviously not females in real life. that’s something fairly expected though, particularly in a gaming world.  also, what could be visible in the gaming world, is the “flame wars”.

 

in a normal society, the courtesy expected usually results in people not as curt, uncouth and arrogant as the faceless world of gaming can produce. social norms demand that humans be polite, quiet, as modest as possible when we are facing opponents, and to settle things in the most peaceful way possible in the hope of settling issues without destroying relationships, but instead forge stronger bonds.

 

in the gaming world at least, it seems perfectly fine to be arrogant, to be curt, uncouth, belittle your enemies and so on, such that they should have “broken egos”… then again i am not making much sense here i think.

 

ANYWAYS!

 

when we started talking about blogs though, we also started pointing out how bloggers have openly admitted who they are in many a blogs in a survey done in 2003, spanning over 200 blogs online

 

This has also resulted in some lashbacks from various instituitions in the society. Organisations who does not want to be related to these online personas or have a bad identity because of these online personas took swift actions, such as sacking their employees or suing them (depending on the severity).

 

These actions though, can cause some negative reactions in themselves. consider this: some of these organisations were never openly named. with such swift reactions to cut these “weakest links” from themselves, it does look like they are ignorant, harsh, and too conservative and unreasonable to the public. well at least to me.

 

is it really wrong to bitch about your colleagues? or your bosses? most of us have at one point or another been unhappy in our jobs, with a colleague, a customer, a client, a superior, a subordinate and what ever not. blogs have come to be, for some, a venting avenue. yes it is a very public place to air your dirty laundry, but at the same time, if anonymity is kept, would it really hurt the company? Along that same line, would cutting loose the person involved really help the company in any manner?

 

the damage, if any, have already been done. i don’t think it would change many things as compared to disciplining the concerned employee in a short period of time, as compared to drastic measures.

 

but perhaps there’s a hidden agenda i have not read about, like “thou shalt never blog about your company, anonymous or not.”

 

funny bit here: we are going to learn how to set up a blog on wednesday :p 

 

pict taken by walmink 

technorati tags: blogging, internet, identities, online personas, internet and identity, assignment, lecture