EME5404: "I'm sure you are who you say you are…"

This week's topic was social networking. The subject matter dealt with participation in social networking, online identities, and privacy. This week's literature focused primarily on teen agers and young adults, but much of it is extensible to all netizens. (You youngsters can look up "netizen.") As a participant in online social culture since the Wild, Wild, West (www) days, I've been through several iterations of my online self. As I mentioned in my post last week, I've had many identities, including my "real-life" identity, in the online world. Many services now are forcing participants to use their real-life identities. I was shocked last summer to find out that a blog I kept anonymously on Blogger (a Google service) was suddenly public with my REAL NAME attached to it! As much as I loved that blog, I had to delete it. The reason I kept it anonymously was so I could voice some controversial viewpoints that might cast me in an unfavorable light with some people. It wasn't really bad or offensive – just controversial.

Privacy – for whatever reason – is a key concern for many online participants, even younger users (boyd & Hargittai, 2010; boyd, 2007). boyd (2007) notes that teens tend to falsify their online profiles mainly to block their parents, but adults have reasons for doing so as well. Women, for example tend to be more cautious online to protect themselves from becoming crime targets. Others may wish to protect their personal identity from known connections for various reasons (boyd & Hargittai, 2010). While users may feel justified in masking their real identities online, many service providers, as I have mentioned, take the opposite view. These service providers take the position that having users reveal their true identities is essential for an "authentic" web experience (Carnegie Council, 2011). Who should have the final say in how users present themselves online? Is that an individual right, or are service providers justified in insisting that we all present our true selves? Under what circumstances should users be permitted to conceal their identities, or is that right undeniable?

I stand in the corner of user-controlled identities. The responsibility for verifying authenticity belongs to the reader/consumer. Producers may have many reasons for remaining anonymous, not all of which are nefarious. Further, initial research suggests that authentic identities may not be effective in promoting more civil online dialog (see last week's post).

Check out the video from the Global Ethics Corner, a Carnegie Council initiative, and let me know what you think!

References
boyd, d. (2007). Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), MacArthur Foundation series on digital learning  - Youth, identity, and digital media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

boyd, d., & Hargittai, E. (2010). Facebook privacy settings: Who cares? First Monday, 15(8). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/3086/2589

Carnegie Council (Producer). (2011, November 18). Privacy and responsibility on the internet: Who should control your identity on the web? [Web video]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/6cN5XJ_02_o