Depictions

Dear Malcolm Parks & Kory Floyd,

Online identities is tricky because people can be fooled by them because of expectations in off line identities. Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Second Life all give the user the opportunity to change his/her identity through virtual world. People that have never met that person in real life will have to go off by the online identity and come to a conclusion of who and how they think that person really is in real life. The posts, links, pictures, and how often a person updates really influence the online identity. There are so many elements that allows people to conclude the perspective of another person from their online identity. Also, to make friends through cyberspace, people are able to 'google' each others' name and see what comes up. Information people once put up in websites they don't use anymore can still pop up because the information is still there and won't be erased. I think online identity is definitely the ought self which is the self that people want others to see because that's what society accepts. Or I think the online identity can also be the ideal self where they put out a front of what they want others to think of them as and that's their ideal personality.

Sincerely,

Stephanie