Internet and Identity

Identity on the internet is an interesting topic because of the potential of almost complete anonymity and therefore of multiple identities.

IP logging is main way of tracking who is doing what, and where, on the internet. On sites that don’t do that, someone can run around with several identities, and have conversations with themselves, and who is going to notice?

Multiple identities are a staple in what is referred to as ‘trolling’ online; deliberately provoking arguments and bad blood between users for no other reason that getting that response. By creating multiple identities it’s possible to even play both sides of the argument and keep it going.

Urban dictionary has several definitions of trolls and what they do: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trolling

The propensity of trolls has raised the need for moderators and other such roles to ‘police’ places on the internet such as message boards, and also leads to the creation of many different systems of rules or posting regulations that members must follow or risked being banned. It’s interesting that even with the freedom the internet offers, which allows for people to feel free enough to create huge amounts of open conflict, more and more regulations are being put in place to help self-police these people, and thereby strip parts of the internet of the freedom and anonymity that make it so different from offline lives.

More mundanely, multiple identities can be used to keep different facets of one’s online life separate. This might simply be using different names, with the person acting no different when using either. Or these identities might be for radically different interests and persona put forth in each just as different. The flexibility the internet offers is still significant, even with the increase in verification and policing that many websites perform.

It will be interesting to see how identity on the internet changes as the internet continues to evolve.