Online Identity

In the age of this technological world that we are living in, the creation of social media is one of the biggest and easiest way to connect with each other no matter which part of the world you are in, as long as there is internet connection.  Together with the mobile industry are also developing at the same time, most mobile phone devices or tablets are able to connect to the internet through the power of 3G and 4G hence all users could be able to stay connected with each other at any time.

But how can we be assured that the person that you are talking from the online platform that you use is the actual person that you know? The answer is simple, it is through their online identity and behavior. Online identity can be categorized in serval ways, from their profile pictures, info and even the stuff that they share online etc. these ways could let you identify them because it reflects their social identity. 

However, it is also important to protect your online identity in the media world as well, since that there are frauds that would steal your identity to commit a crime, for example stealing money from your bank, getting loans or anything that benefits themselves. Hence, this is why we need to be careful on what information that we chose to put online however the information should be limited.

According to (Brown 2015, p.221) online identity is ‘’the post-structuralist conception of identity involves rejecting the notion of a singular, ‘ture’self and acknowledging that there are multiple ‘selves’.’’ For myself, I use Instagram and WeChat on a daily basis, however the information the I share in these two platforms are totally different.  For example, I use Instagram to share my photos that I have taken with my camera lens mainly, just to make my account more to look more artistic. But on WeChat, I tend not to give out my information a lot since that I do not trust their privacy system at all.

Here are some photos from my Instagram account, the top left corner is my profile picture. The reason that I have chosen to use this picture is because I think that it would draw more attention to other users, and it is also a way to show the younger version of Adrian Chau. Moving on to the bottom, I have also given out brief information of myself, those three flags represents the places that I have studied before and were I am studying currently but it is more likely to be a travel blog I would say. Instagram would let you to share moments as well, which means the user can upload what they called a ‘’story’’ and share it to their followers and it allows you to interact with them and these story will be archived in 24 hours. 

In my Instagram account, most of the pages that I have followed are mainly categorized by my friends, celebrities, photographers, fashion trends and sports channel. Therefore, it is also for myself to choose what to see and what am I mainly interested in in order to build up my own community for myself. The reason behind it is because I can get all the latest information that I want.

Identity thieves are all over the world, just as I was doing my blog post, my Facebook account was hacked by someone in Brazil. This is the reason why it is also important to keep your account safe and giving less important information about yourself because you don’t know what their purposes are.  To sum up, the online world surly have limitless information that you can explore and it is no doubt that it is one of the greatest invention among human history however when you have chosen to go into this digital world, you should be careful and choose wisely on what information that you would like the online world know about yourself.

Brown, A 2015, ‘Making Meaning through Narrative: Conventions, Intertextuality and Transmedia Storytelling’ in Communication, Digital media and Everyday Life, 2en ed., Oxford University Press, South Melbourne