SB2: Research on Online Identity

After thinking about which idea I wanted to research more about is about online identity/ multiple identities. I wanted to know more about how we communicate socially online and especially in the digital age now., as I feel like we do things unconsciously now and as we grew up with technology we make certain choices and decisions with our online usage without much thought but more of like a muscle impulse.

I wanted to focus on how we use social media because that's our main means of communicating socially online.

Social Media (noun) 

1. websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

Context Collapse - "Different sites, Different audiences, Different Purposes."


I wanted to explore multiple online identities not in the way that people create fake identities or communicate through a false identity but more of how we use social in a versatile way where we choose to use various different social media website accounts or application or even have multiple accounts in one social media platform in order to form identities that we would like to present to our audiences through that platform.  

1) Multiple Identities/ Personas

People use different social media sites in order to cater to specific needs, themes and audiences that they have such as that, as said by Mallory Johns (social media editor) "Instagram is where everything appears to be perfect and highly filtered, whereas my Snapchat is raw and more visceral" (1) 
I think it also links the idea of having multiple identities where, we have to create various accounts for those personas in order to accomodate to the audience and filter what we want they to see abut ourselves. 

2) Convenience 

It's also done in order to have a sense of control as to what you are posting and sharing. But it also makes it easier for yourself to organise and categorise what you want to post on certain sites. Also, in relation to the audience; they would want to only involve themselves in parts which they are interested in therefore having only one account or profile can muddle the communication/messaging and may create a very chaotic and vague representation of yourself online. 

3) Not ONE APPLICATION OR SITE has EVERYTHING that we want/need

Different sites and applications advertisement themselves to be the 'best' or the 'better' option for a particular feature e.g. messaging or sharing pictures/videos, therefor we are obliged to have two or more applications depending on what we need. For example, Instagram is for sharing pictures and videos which in turn makes it the best app to share our LIFESTYLE, whereas Twitter is mainly for SHARING OPINIONS. 

4) Professional VS. Personal Life

Social media is also a platform where we share our lives but also where we seek jobs, therefore using various accounts and sites can help separate the line between the two. If a person uses one account for both personal and professional endeavours, friends and family might be okay with it, however potential employers may not be as keen as they can evaluate and judge if you are fit to represent their company based on what they see about you online. This is also another reason why people do not link their personal accounts to their professional ones in order to keep both persona's catered to their specific audiences.

1) https://www.engadget.com/2016/03/04/multiple-online-identities/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=AzjHMNZPUEpEhqFm8sFsVQ
2) https://www.quora.com/What-is-context-collapse-in-social-media
3) https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2016/online-identity-who-me/