Online Identity
Online Identity is the persona an individual develops in an online community as perceived by others and by himself within the community. Just like in the real world, there are many different types of identities an individual can assume while in an online community. What is unique about an online identity is that it does not necessarily need to reflect the identity of the individual while offline, and is easily changed or manipulated due to the unique nature of online representation, which helps to facilitate anonymous behavior within online communities.
Contents
Construction of Online Identity
There are two primary sources that influence the construction of online identities: external sources and internal sources.
External Sources
External sources are factors that influence an individual's identity outside the scope of his own natural actions. These include, but are not limited to:
- Other Users - How an individual is perceived by others plays a significant role in determining the actions the individual will likely choose to perform while in their presence.
- Types of Virtual Environments - The type of virtual environment an individual exists in determines the types of customs and values he is likely to adopt, which affect how the individual will choose to represent himself while in the environment.
Internal Sources
Internal sources are factors that influence an individual's identity based on his identity developed prior to his immersion into a virtual environment.
- Inherent Personality - An individual's inherent personality can influence the type of environment the individual chooses to inhabit and his actions within that environment. For example, someone who has a tendency to make people laugh may exhibit similar behavior within a virtual environment. He may also seek out online communities that encourage him to exhibit this type of behavior so as to satisfy this niche.
- Online Intent - An individual's initial intentions for immersing himself in a virtual environment can affect how his online identity is constructed. A user whose intentions for diving into a virtual environment as a way of connecting and communicating with others in new and innovative ways will likely construct his online identity much differently than a user whose interest in exploring a virtual environment is based on his intent to identify vulnerabilities in the environment so as to exploit it through malicious activity.
Representation of Online Identity
Online identities are represented through the incorporation of avatars. These representations not only allow individuals to identify themselves within an online community, but more importantly, allow others to associate specific characteristics or personas with the individual when they see the avatar. The type of avatar used to represent an individual can also help to influence the construction of identity for that individual. Since an avatar can be anything from a virtual object like a dog or a person to a name or description, there are many ways an individual can interact with his avatar and with other avatars depending on the type of online community the avatar exists in.
The Multiplicity of Identity in a Virtual Environment
Just as the online identity of an individual need not reflect the offline identity of an individual, the identity of an individual in one online community may not reflect the identity of the individual in a different online community. For example an individual may be a well respected member of one community who is well well-versed in the customs and values associated with that community such as a Comic Book Review forum, but may be unknown in another community like an IMDB Critics community and hold little prestige or respect within it. Depending on the barriers to creating new pseudonyms in the community, it is also possible for one person to have several different personas on the same forum, game, or virtual environment
Online Identities in Marketing and Media
Because online communities themselves greatly influence the development of identities, many similar identities can be found within a single community. This is a convenient metric for defining online community demographics through the clustering of specific types of identities. This is a potential strategy for marketing and advertising companies, because once an agency begins to understand the types of identities associated with specific communities, it is then possible to predict what sort of things a community of a specific type of identity will value. For example, people who play Club Penguin are probably more likely to enjoy other types of Disney based products rather than those who play Starcraft or World of Warcraft. On the other hand, The Pirate Bay community is probably less likely to purchase new music or videos than most other Bit Torrent communities due to the values associated with identities found in that community.
References
References Pending.
Notes
Notes Pending
