How ethical is the act of creating an online alter ego?

In 2015, the internet has become an important factor in almost everyone’s daily life. Keeping in touch with Facebook, sharing pictures on Instagram, or making important career connections on LinkedIn. Even though the internet has the ability to shape what we do on a daily basis, people can use the internet for having multiple personas. This may not sound that bad, but internet aliases can be present in things like online dating and these aliases can do some harm.

One example of how multiple online identities can be malicious is the act of catfishing. This term, coined by MTV show, Catfish, describes the act of someone creating a new identity on the internet to lure someone into an online relationship without ever truly revealing themselves online. In an article about catfishing from the New Yorker, the article talks about one episode on the TV show where a man named Michael has been dating a woman online for 18 months, even though they live in the same city. It’s interesting to think to oneself why this man still maintains a relationship, but the article states from Michael’s perspective that ““Caroline is the perfect person for me. I feel like even though we haven’t met, the bond we built over this time is stronger than anything I’ve ever had with anyone else.” (Klein, New Yorker). This can still be mind-boggling but later on in the article petite and red-headed Caroline, who actually turns out to be a larger woman named Heather, goes on to describe that “the Internet gives Heather the opportunity to detach from the body she doesn’t like in order to connect Michael with what she does like about herself” (Klein, New Yorker). For Michael (and other people who have experienced this), he has clearly been treated unethically as he has expressed his emotions to someone who wasn’t who they said they were. Using another persona for acts like these highlights the negatives for having multiple identities on the internet as it plays with the ethical considerations of having multiple personas.

On the other hand, in that same article, Heather used her alter ego to hide the things she didn’t like about herself, which is her physique. By hiding the things about herself she didn’t like and using the things she liked about herself, which were her emotions and hobbies, she could really connect with Michael about who she really was. This in turn gave her much more confidence as she didn’t have to think about her body when she was dating Michael online. This also applies to people who have information they don’t want to share, like health conditions. By talking about it with another identity on the internet, the person doesn’t have to worry about having a friend or acquaintance find out about their health problems and face judgment from people these people.

Having an alter ego on the internet can be very beneficial if someone feels the need to hide personal information about themselves, like health or a feature about themselves they don’t like and therefore increasing self-esteem. But on the other hand, using an alter ego on the internet when dating is incredibly unethical and can be very damaging to people who experience this. In conclusion, I believe that the above evidence helps explain that the cons of having multiple online personas overshadows the pros of multiple identities as it crosses the boundaries of what is considered to be ethical and what isn’t.

Word Count: 568

Sources:

Jarvis, J. (2011) One Identity or More?. Accessed 21/10/15 from http://buzzmachine.com/2011/03/08/one-identity-or-more/

Klein, A.A. (2015) Consider the “Catfish”. Accessed 22/10/15 from http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/consider-the-catfish

Vronay, D. (2014) The Online Identity Crisis. Accessed 22/10/15 from http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/the-online-identity-crisis/

Topic 1 Reflection

After reading about the discussion between ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’, I have now come to realize that different generations are placed in different ‘digital’ groups, which is something I never knew existed before. I’m aware that the younger generation are quicker to grasp to technology, but to split generations in two groups was something I have never come across and found it strange to discuss two groups primarily on age. I’ve heard people of the younger generation calling older people technophobes for not being able to grasp technological advances, but this discussion was something completely new to me. I’m not saying that the groups are only separated by age, but saying the digital immigrants use the internet solely to book holidays or check their bank balances isn’t necessarily true. As I mentioned in my discussion of this topic on my blog, some people in the so-called ‘digital immigrant’ part of the discussion actually use things like social media more than people from the ‘native’ group. I see this on a day-to-day basis as my Facebook news feed contains more pictures and status updates from immigrants than natives.

In an article by the Huffington Post (which is also referenced on the blog post for this topic), it is mentioned that people of the ‘digital native’ group view the world in a more egalitarian manner while also expressing cynical views towards the government, for example. On the other hand, people who are considered to be ‘digital immigrants’ are very goal-oriented, which is something I sometimes see with older generations. Sometimes I feel that ‘digital immigrants’ I’ve met and spent time with can pressure me into getting work and figure out what I want to do when I finish university, which makes me feel uneasy at times. On the other hand, some people who are considered to be digital immigrants have a slightly different point of view. These members of digital immigrant group have told me (from personal experience) to not worry about it, which makes me feel a little more comfortable.

All in all, I initially had no idea that there was a discussion on how the internet was across various age groups and it’s an argument I can relate to at times (Huffington Post), while the other argument saying that ‘digital immigrants’ use the internet to solely check bank balances and book holidays is something I find to be completely untrue.

Word Count: 401

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Distinguishing between digital “natives” and digital “immigrants”

We live in a world where technology has become an almost essential part of peoples’ lives. Communicating between people from every corner of the planet has never been so easy. The one thing that comes to mind, however, is trying to understand and distinguish those born into the technological age, the digital natives, and those who have had to adapt to it, the digital immigrants. It is something that goes far beyond the idea of it simply being one being born into the technological age while the other one has had to adapt to it.

DeGraff (2014) describes digital natives to view life in a more “horizontal” way than digital immigrants. This means that they view the world in a much less prejudiced way. DeGraff also explains that digital natives hold sceptical and critical views on social institutions such as the government. I completely agree with this as the internet allows us to see other peoples’ opinions and how they react to things very easily. From personal experience, I’ve come across many people of this generation who are indeed very critical about the government but also lean to a very equal mind-set. However, DeGraff goes on to say that this generation isn’t very goal-oriented and that it’s the digital immigrants who are the goal-oriented generation. This is also something that is relatable as natives aren’t necessarily ready to start a career, while digital immigrants can pressure natives into getting jobs and working very hard for a living. Adding to that, digital immigrants can also come off as brutal as they are so oriented on doing things like finishing important projects and doing deals with other companies, which can make the native feel very pressured.

On the other hand, David White (2008) describes the two entities as “residents” and “visitors” as opposed to immigrants and natives. The resident is someone who spends a lot of time on the internet, such as using social media websites, while the visitor is someone who uses the internet to buy train tickets. White (2008) goes on to say that the visitors won’t necessarily blog or share their opinions on the internet. This isn’t necessarily true as many people who could fall into the “visitor” category have facebook accounts, blog and share their opinions on thousands of different topics everyday. Therefore, it is possible that some visitors could be transitioning in the realm of the residents.

To conclude, this discussion between natives and immigrants or residents and visitors has no easy explanation. It is definitely true that the natives are more horizontal and that the immigrants are very goal-oriented, but how White (2008) describes their use of the internet isn’t necessarily true. It can be argued that the immigrants are slowly integrating with the natives because the immigrants also blog and post pictures on their social media accounts. Likewise, not all people of the “native” generation live on the internet as some have started to delete their social media accounts, thus moving away from the internet world.

Word Count: 512

References:

White, D. (2008) TALL blog. Accessed 09/10/15 from http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2008/07/23/not-natives-immigrants-but-visitors-residents/

DeGraff, J. (2014) Huffington Post. Accessed 09/10/15 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-degraff/digital-natives-vs-digita_b_5499606.html