Online Identity

With the rising internet era people feel the need to "identify" themselves online. Whether it's their Facebook profile page or their twitter account picture. Everyone feels the need to have what they think is "themselves" have an online presence be known. That's what this article from The Guardian  is saying.

Really the craze of everyone being online has created this buzz as to who we really are. This is a daily question we are faced with, and people are constantly trying to figure it out. Our true identities are made of two separate identities: reflexive and ascribed. Reflexive being who we personally think we are and Ascribed being who others think that we are. So its a combination of both and then when you get online a third element becomes involved and that's our virtual identity.

These identities we "create" can both good and bad. If you are trying to come out of the closet but can't because people in the real world will make fun of you, online community's are great for this. Now let's say your in high school and aren't the most popular, you can online and be the most popular pretty blonde their is. That's another thing with going online their are stereotypes as their are in the everyday real world. Plus if an online community rejects you, you can go as easily as you came. For some people talking with others online is as afar as they get socially. People creating a web presences is just seeping more and more as we as whole get involved with social media. The elements of sites like Facebook, Google, and Twitter you can be someone you aren't but really it's more of you showing us who you really are that we wouldn't know/see day to day. Your profile page is like you showcasing us your best qualities or what you want us to see about you. for example if your a dancer and singer you might have pictures of you at dance recitals and you make like Glee. With Facebook people believe others view them through photos, that's why companies like Instagram as fast and growing!

So as the internet age is buzzing it can be fun thing to be all these different people we wish or want to be. At the same time we don't want to forget who we "really" are on a day to day basis. Twitter, Google, and Facebook are not going away anytime soon if anything they will keep growing to stay current with the new technology we are finding out about. We can stay connected, be online, and have fun but just have to remember the online virtual world is not the reality world we actually live in!