Writing Assignment 6: Identity

Well, I’m not really involved in many virtual communities. I have a MySpace and Facebook page but, I don’t really use them much for reasons of networking and stuff like that. And maybe check them once a week. Yet, I do have an identity established with both. Neither of my pages contains much information about myself mainly because I created them simply to have something other than E-mail and the phone to talk to some of my friends on the west coast and also because I’ve become somewhat paranoid about having certain types of information about myself available to people who in the real world as opposed to the virtual world are more commonly known as strangers. It’s something that I question when you consider the amounts of self-disclosure involved in the sites that people subscribe to and in a face-to-face interaction those same people would be reluctant to give the same information.

But, sorry not to get off on a tangent, after reading “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community” by Judith S. Donath, I would have to say that due to my lack of use with the internet I associate it more with deception. What its comes down to is that I use the internet frequently but, only for the same things, research and typing papers. Occasionally checking my email and visiting sites like Youtube and Collegehumor. Other than that I haven’t established myself other than posting a few blogs for this class, you could say that I have no credibility online first, because no one knows who I am (not to say that I want people to know who I am) and secondly I don’t even know if what I do blog about really makes any sense to anyone else except for me. And that doesn’t say a whole lot about me, in the virtual world.

I understand that identity plays a key role in virtual worlds as stated by Donath in the readings, and that knowing who is trying to communicate and what they are trying to say and do is going to establish that credibility(truth) and identity of being an expert. As Donath states, “For assessing the reliability of information and the trustworthiness of a confidant, identity is essential. And care of one's own identity, one's reputation, is fundamental to the formation of community”. I would have to say that all of my account names or as Donath refers to as, “Basic ID’s” are in some way linked directly to my name but not really anything else. I guess I consider that to be free information therefore it has no relation to my reputation and or amount of credibility that I have not established yet. It’s the unreliability and deception in the community that it can cause frustration.

An example of this would be if someone chooses to assume say, one of my own identities in a virtual community that would be considered “Identity Theft”. For some to fraudulently represent themselves as me and access my bank account information online and make unauthorized purchases. This example may be more relative to the amount of information that is available about myself on the internet. How much information do I give about myself on the sites and in the virtual communities that I am associated with. It’s the fact that the information is accessible when you use the internet because everything is in a copied form of text.

I do like how Donath uses analogies to gauge levels of deception though. Like, putting that you have a lot of experience waitressing on your resume when you may embellish the amount that you actually do have. But, for instance if you were to say that you have years of experience in say, the medical field and have no idea how to perform a surgery, then you can see the high cost in punishment involved based on the level of deception that you deceive.

References:

Donath, J. S., (November 12, 1996) . Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved October 3, 2008, from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboar
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