Over the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to encourage my friends, my colleagues at work and authors to begin to develop an online identity. One of those first steps is to create a gravatar for themselves so that everyone can be identified relatively easily. What really started to get me thinking about writing about online identities was Melanie Mcbride’s write up on Google’s Lively with a brief comparison to Second Life. I had written about being Googleable before but the more I think about it, an online identity is no longer an option, it is a necessity if you are a citizen in this day and age and work or carry out a lifestyle that involves the web in some form. My reasoning is that each and every person should be defining themselves in some sense online so that what they do online becomes more than just a part of the web, but rather a part of themselves as well. I’m less so concerned about the conversations taking place online but rather how people view and represent themselves online. Conversations are an outcome that results from how people view themselves and others over the internet.
What’s interesting is the reaction and response that I get when I mention the idea of creating an avatar — which ranges from apathy to near-absolute confusion or on the other end of the spectrum, enthusiasm and a outburst of creativity.
Avatars have been a long-standing convention on the internet for individuals to represent themselves in any manner they wish, beginning with a nickname. It seems the biggest hurdle for most individuals is recognizing the long term implications to having an online identity — the fact that it is connected to building your online identity and wields the power to the gradual creation of your place (or existence) online and allows for a person to formulate value and credibility.
Nicknames were used in IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and message boards in the earlier years of the Internet as well as BBS (Bulletin Board Systems).
It seems that with the Internet becoming mainstream and the fact that Facebook and all social media websites pushing for the use of avatars (or profile photographs), people are confused by the overlap between the online virtual world and real life. In addition, many seem to be flustered by the fact that there are different worlds that we live in — public, private, and virtual. In some cases, some people may even suggest multiple “personas” to represent yourself in different circumstances. One can argue the consequences of personas but I will leave that for another day. Those who may be interested, Melanie has posted on her site and on twitter numerous times about why people need to be aware of their actions online. My point however, is focused on why everyone needs step up and work on their online identity. Being on Facebook and LinkedIn is not enough — unfortunately if you don’t take control of your identity and help define it, others will do it for you.
An easy example that many people can relate to would be the many photographs on Facebook. How often are we in someone elses photograph and are tagged? How often do you find those photographs repulsive? Yes, we usually have control over those tags on Facebook but that’s not always the case. Very often we don’t necessarily have absolute control over who sees what and we definitely do not have a general control over the open space of the Internet.
The ironic thing is that we would readily strive to define our lives in real life yet we don’t take that into consideration or discount the virtual aspect of our lives, where everything is X number of times more connected. I’m not suggesting that we reveal our private lives or expose our name and hometown but I am saying that one simply needs to represent themselves online in one way or another. That is how we connect with one another and express ourselves as individuals.
What is identity? (credit: Dominic Sayers)
It’s the importance of our online identities that leads us to the many debates and discussions with regards to OpenID. This is the second step for those who already have set up their many usernames, nicknames or avatars. The goal is to ensure the authenticity or privacy of your identity and that the ownership of that identity remains with you, the user.
The consequence of your online identity is the same as how you define yourself in real life multiplied by the number of people who actively engage the world wide web. So … what do you think of yourself?
