Virtual Identity

“As we continue to fill our profiles, add pictures, quotes, and favourite music, we are creating an identity that is closer to the “real” us and yet still not truly us” (Dyer, 2011: 168)

With a major emphasis on identity and individualization in today’s society, social networking sites (SNS’s) have become a major phenomenon not only for communication and networking as their initial purpose, bus also used to make representations of people within reality. Social networking sites are one of the major sources for linking a digital footprint to an information system with personal information and details such as a name, age, gender, location and interests.

Profile pictures, avatars or display pictures are the key ornament to a profile in which it is used to represent a person and can also say a lot about someone. The speculation of online identities is that they don’t portray exact representations of people in reality (Dyer, 2011: 168; Van Kokswijik, 2007: 94); instead a profile is a creation to ‘market’ you to other potential friends, networks and communities.

“The Avatar bodies consumers and researchers create and use in virtual worlds are inseparable from the performance of the self and are crucial to engagement in in-world social life. They are the facilitators of interaction and the locus for virtual identity” (Wood and Solomon, 2009: 13)

These profile pictures are what appears when you search your name on a search engine looking for pictures. Through profile pictures you are giving your digital footprint or your traceable history a face. This isn’t all the information you are giving however, you can also link yourself to certain people, sites and communities. If you try searching your own name through Google images, your name you can also bring up pictures of your friends and family which delves into personal network connections.



SNS profiles seem to corner your digital footprint to particular networks of people. As mentioned in the first post, identity is a creation of the community first and upon this individuality is sort after. By connecting to these communities our digital identities can be categorised and gain a personality, and this is all through images on a profile. Tagging can be considered as another alternative for creating personal data in the creation of a digital footprint. Tagging allows you to shape your identity how you wish to be identified, through likes, dislikes and hobbies, who you are friends with and what your weekly activities are.

So why have an online profile?

An online profile has benefits that allow you to contact and find people you used to be close friends with back in school, university or even old neighbours. In fact finding people has never been easier as Facebook identification can even be used in identifying criminals. According to Dyer, since the industrial revolution keeping in contact became difficult for people, so the modern digital age has acted to restore those connections through social networking sites (Dyer, 2011: 168). They are also good for sharing files such as photos, links, videos and events with contacts that you might not see very often.


References:

Dyer, J. 2011. From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology, Kregel Publications: Grand Rapids, MI

Wood, N.T. and Solomon, M.R. 2009. Virtual Social Identity and Consumer Behaviour, M.E. Sharpe, Inc.: New York

Van Kokswijik, J. 2007. Digital Ego: Social and Legal Aspects of Virtual Identity, Eburon Academic Publishers