Online identity
Online identity can be better explained as my identity on the network, and the identity I want to show the people. “When constructing personal web pages or the like, users themselves often imagine that they are revealing their “real” or “true” essence, a person or “me” who is unique, singular, and outside social constructions and constraints.” ( Smith,Watson,2014,P71). We use different kinds of platforms on the web, In the online environment, most people prefer virtual identities on the Internet,the construction of online identity is in the form of a specific social platform, communicating specific content. In such a group, all members come together because of certain hobbies or identity characteristics, communicate issues that are of great concern to each other in communication, and use this to gain self-identity in the collective and realize their identity. For example, many people can find a sense of satisfaction and tolerance that cannot be obtained in reality through Internet mediaDifferent platforms show very different identities.Many people want to hide their true selves. Get inner satisfaction. In fact, there is a certain gap between real communication and network communication, and there is a certain virtuality. Use the Internet as your listener, your trash can, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you don’t want to be seen as you really are, you can’t help it. Some people are very different from reality on the Internet, and some people insist on using real personal information. Everyone ’s understanding of the personal identity of the Internet is very different.
WeChat-logo, laboratoriu linux, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
With the development of network technology, various kinds of social media meet people’s diverse social demands. “ The availability of multiple and heterogeneous sites for self presentation promises seemingly endless opportunities for conveying some “truth” about an “authentic” self for those with access to web technologies.” ( Smith,Watson,2014,P75) In different social scenes, everyone’s social image is different.Social is no longer confined to the same place at the same time, it makes strangers familiar and communicate with each other , there is a greater chance to find people with similar interests, and it also allows more people with common pursuit to come together to form a virtual Community circle. At present, the mainstream social software in China is WeChat. Through my personal experience of using WeChat. When i was using Wechat, I did not disguise my real identity when using wechat.Through my wechat profile picture, I prefer to use some of my favorite picture. Nowadays, many people prefer to change their avatars based on their self-emotion in real life when using online identity, so do I.Because of the popularity of the community and the contemporary, it is easier to change a profile picture as an expression of emotion, I think so.I don’t like the idea of using my online identity to disguise myself on social networks.I am a student, and my personal online identity has little impact on society. For celebrities, their online identity is a kind of camouflage, because their lives are always exposed to the public, so when they using wechat they can be themselves,because its more private.
Screenshot from Wechat profile by Vivien shen, 15th of Dec 2019.
Screenshot from Wechat profile by Vivien shen, 15th of Dec 2019.
Through my understanding of twitter, many celebrities, such as Obama, are mostly public online identities, But in his own personal life it’s more about communicating with friends and family, “ For much of the twentieth century, celebrities served as beacons of the public world.” (Marshall,P ,2010,P36). Means that when celebrities speak in public, because of their public identity, they will be followed on the Internet and become a standard. On twitter, I mainly deal with the social masses, which I think is totally different from WeChat. As a newly registered twitter user, I think twitter is a good public platform to use, For example, sharing opinions, or using different personal identities, at that point Twitter is better than WeChat in community discussions because it is like adding a shield to your online identity. which is different from the real one in real life when shaping personal identity. But through WeChat, I prefer to deal with my good friends and small groups.That’s why I like, oh no, even other people like to use WeChat, because it doesn’t burden our online identity too much. More on Twitter, I went back and learned to “shape” my identity to the outside world. On WeChat, I was more frank about my identity.
Twitter screen shoot profile by Vivien shen, 15th of Dec 2019
Reference:
- 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. 71
- Marshall, PD 2010, ‘The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as marker of presentational media’, Celebrity Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 36
- 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. 75
- Laboratorio L 2017,WeChat-logo Uploaded on July 15, 2017 , photograph, retrievedJuly 30, 2017, <https://www.flickr.com/photos/133825397@N08/36090807732/in/photolist-WZdPKJ-JLAGJF>.
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