Week 5: "Vital Signs of Life: Maintaining Visibility on the Social Stage"

Who Am I?
by Shaun Buzza, 25/03/2010

Identity is a very personal concept; in the real world identity is vital to a person or person’s existence, portrayal and well-being. The compromises to identity including; theft and falsification, blur its integrity not only within the real world but virtual environments as well.

Public displays of connection, as they are referred to by J. Donath and D. Boyd, are the established links in the virtual world that help prove identity. They are most commonly expressed on social networking sites, though can be found on blogging and other various networking sites. These connections remain very broad and can include; links and references, status updates, photographs, blog posts, comments, friends etc., all of which can be assembled and translated into a virtual perception of someone’s online identity.

Of course we can only gather what people network, so our vision of identity can still be skewed by what information people allow us to see. There are obvious depictions such as photos and general posting online, but on a subconscious level there are virtual trails that people unintentionally leave behind that can also contribute to their identity. How we sculpt our virtual Identities is entirely up to us, though we must always be aware of the implications when our identities become public.

References

J. Donath & D. Boyd. (2004). “Public Displays of Connection”. BT Technology Journal, volume 22 (4): 71-82.

J. Donath. (1996). “Identity and deception in the virtual community”. Communities in Cyberspace, University of California Press: 1-25.