From my experiences, I will use Facebook and Instagram as examples of tools that helps shapes my online identity. Facebook and Instagram are two very different social media sites, although yes they share one thing in common, that is they are social media sites, but the way consumers use them are very different. For example, in Facebook the user can almost do anything, in my experience, I can post random statuses, post photos and videos, or perhaps check-in at relevant places so my friends know where I am, whereas in Instagram the user can only post photos and videos of what they wanted. Instagram users don't have the luxury to post words or check-in at some place without posting a photo or video first. My Facebook online identity I can say is quite contrast in difference with my Instagram online identity this is because I decided to use Instagram more and more every week rather to use my Facebook, thus creating my Instagram content more relevant pictures and videos of my everyday life rather than Facebook. In Facebook , I'm very careful of my online identity because it's the most common social media everyone uses, so I wouldn't want anyone with simple access to Internet to access my Facebook profile, and am careful with the images (profile picture, for example) that I posted and status updates. In Instagram, as it's not as popular and massive as Facebook just yet, I feel more freedom to use it because not many potential employers or creepers out there can stalk, or perhaps even know the existence of my Instagram account. As Facebook attracts more and more users, potentially employers will use Facebook as their hunting tool to look for information for their potential employees. Also, more stalkers and creepers use Facebook more rather than Instagram as their number one tool for potential victims, which backs up my argument that my online identity in Facebook is more discreet in comparison to my Instagram.
Screenshots embedded from my personal
Facebook and Instagram accounts respectively.
In Facebook, I choose only the necessary information for the use of my online identity that I will allow to show to the audience (my friends). As Facebook has more information options that I can use rather than Instagram, I'm being more choosy. In Instagram, your 'followers' can only see your contents and not your information (age, gender, school, hometown, etc.) compare to Facebook. In Facebook, your friends can look, like and comment on your profile picture but not so on Instagram, as they can only see the profile picture but not like nor comment on it, thus creating more security to those who are insecure of their profile pictures in social media. In terms of communication (chatting), Facebook allows it, which symbolises your online identity to a whole new level, whereas in Instagram the way you 'communicate' is simply by commenting on one of the pictures and hoping for the conversation to be alive and continuous. As in the 21st century, more and more people are using Internet instead of watching TV (especially Generation Y and Z), people becomes more aware of their identity in the online world and not so easily disclose information that could lead to themselves being harassed or harmed in that matter. Users now see themselves in the online world as a " recognition that these sites and the exchanges that develop on them are extensions in the production of the self and are vital to the maintenance of one's identity." (Marshall 2010, p. 42). These social media sites, whether it would be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn now works as tools that we use to shape who we are in the online world.
According to Claypoole (2012), " we are all entertainers and publishers now. We can all send thoughts, opinions and videos of ourselves throughout the world with the click of a mouse or tap of a finger." (Claypoole 2012, p.3). I totally agree with this argument as for all the power that comes within the Internet, it also gives us huge responsibilities with it, having said that we need to consider how easy it is for that power to be manipulated and for someone else to steal our identity and uses it for their satisfaction, thus giving a whole new meaning for the term 'online identity/identities'.
References:
Marshall, PD 2010, ‘The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as
marker of presentational media’, Celebrity Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 35-48.
Smith, S and Watson, J 2014, 'Virtually Me: A Toolbox about Online Self-Presentation', in Poletti , A and Rak, J, Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 70-95.
Claypoole, T 2012, 'How did you get naked?', Protecting your internet identity: are you naked online?, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, pp. 1-18.
