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/
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