Every day people portray multiple personas, sometimes characteristic of one’s self but others entirely uncharacteristic. Who we are in front of our employers, children, friends, or strangers are different parts of our whole. This is taken to a much more extreme level with the rise of the Internet, and people often undertake a persona otherwise unseen in the “real world”. In one moment we are the epitome of professionalism, yet in the next moment we are online jabbing at various political parties or insulting another player on a video game. However, if we were to do this under our actual name it is likely we would be chastised. It is this reason we frequently adopt pseudonyms online. By doing so we grant ourselves an amount of freedom; we are given an opportunity to portray someone our inhibitions may not otherwise allow or society frowns upon. …show more content…
Because we concentrate on this behavior pseudonyms are slowly being replaced with our real identities. However, the use of pseudonyms may have a beneficial impact as well. Through lack of example we often lose sight of this, but it is by observing an example in which pseudonymity breeds positive consequences in which we can understand the importance of it online. One such example of this is in the semi-autobiographical work Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of Present Time, by Fanny Fern (Sarah Willis), written in 1854. Even though this is a historical case and, of course, does not involve the Internet, it provides insight into what apparent anonymity offers. By examining the positive consequences the protagonist, Ruth Hall, undergoes after adopting the pseudonym Floy we may further understand the importance of pseudonyms on the Internet on a individual
In “Modern Romance,” Celeste Biever describes romantic relationships in the Internet community. She describes how people can romantically be involved on the Internet and how the Internet teaches one to learn about a person from the inside out.In “Cyberspace and Identity,” Sherry Turkle also expresses her interest in the Internet and how it allows for the act of self-exploration. Even though their focus on what the Internet is used for are different from the perspective of one another, Biever and Turkle both see the Internet as a place for exploration in a general sense.
White, Barbara A. "Fanny Fern (Sara Willis Parton) 1811-1872." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 2037-2038.
Porter, Katherine Anne. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2000.
...ses a threat of humiliation and maltreating from other individuals that can have a detrimental effect on their lives. A person can go from being a normal school student to a laughing stock on a popular social network or even trend from a emotionally stable individual to a deranged, depressed critter who now hides in the shadows of society hoping never to be revealed. The informative thought of the re-occurrence of public shaming throughout history from Bennett allows the reader to question if this is an issue that is perpetual and something that will never go away. Furthermore, the author conveys the idea that publicizing oneself can be a burden; the darkside of Internet fame. Wrapping up her article, Bennett portrays a warning to the reader stating, “Shame...will always be with you”(115). Harassment from Internet fame can alter a person's life-forever.
Porter, Katherine Anne. "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." Flowering Judas and other Stories. New York : Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1958 180-187
Fleming begins her argument by paralleling the transformative properties of the invention of the telephone years ago to social networks today (Fleming). But, Fleming states that “students’ online identities and friendships come at a price, as job recruiters, school administrators, law enforcement officers and sexual predators sign on and start searching” (Fleming). Social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook are frequented favorites, especially by college students. These sites have become so popular that “friending” a person is now a dictionary verb. However, Fleming believes that students are not as cautious as they should be. In fact, “thirty percent of students report accepting ‘friend’ reques...
Brooks, Gwendolyn. “The Mother.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Myer. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999. 1081.
Clements, Victoria. Introduction. A New-England Tale. By Catharine Maria Sedgwick. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Ever since the dawn of time, people have been communicating with others around them and with today’s technology people can interconnect with people across the globe. They have access to a wider range of peers and colleagues like no other time period and the possibilities continue to advance these communications. Yet as those in the world continue to make new friends and hear the opinions of more people they slowly develop a dual personality. Though people have always had parallel identities, one for family and friend, and another for acquaints and strangers, as Barbara Mellix points out in her essay. Mellix is a writer and educator who’s essay “From the Outside, In” tells how she grew up learning two identities so she could function in both her personal world with close family and friends, and her world that dealt with others. Now as the world of the others has expanded with the help of technology so has the use of the second identity and it has taken the form of the online identity. People’s second online identity is always on an aggressive defense, paranoid to the point of any wrong thing said or unsaid could lead to a fight, and they tend to only be happy when there is someone to attack. In the physical world where people are surrounded by true friends and people they trust with their emotions and they are more caring and sympathetic of others’ pain. However the online identity poses a threat to the personal identity as people begin to pull traits from one identity to the next. Although not having an online identity Mellix can relate to this with an experience that involved confusing her identities. Mellix describes how when her personalities become mixed, she was puzzled about who she was and who belonged in her personal iden...
In his Enigmas of Identity, Peter Brooks describes the “transactional nature of the self,” where individual identity is created through its relationship with others (Brooks 23). Identity is forged through “transpersonal networks”, moving beyond the individual or the personal (23). Identity is not static, but a continuous “project,” asking in what ways one stays the same, changes and grows (15). In Arthur Conan Doyle’ “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” identity and its transactional, malleable nature play a significant role. In each narrative, the identities of those protagonists hold shape shifting capabilities, and mistaken or lost individual identities are major themes.
In the essay “Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt” the author Julie Zhou demonstrates the negative impact Anonymity in the internet has had on human beings. Following with a convincing argument for unmasking these “trolls” of the internet.
Jeff Jarvis is a journalist, professor, and public speaker. In his book, “Public Parts”, Jarvis’s own opinions on “publicness” are stated plainly. He sees both social and personal benefits to living a totally public life on the internet. David Kirkpatrick is a technology journalist and author. He offers no opinion of his own on subject of total public disclosure. He has written two books on the social media giant Facebook. Kirkpatrick’s book “The Facebook Effect” was reviewed by David Pogue in The New York Times, Sunday Book Review. Pogue wrote, “You come away with a creepy new awareness of how a directory of college students is fast becoming a directory of all humanity — one that’s in the hands of a somewhat strange 26-year-old wearing a T-shirt and rubber Adidas sandals.” His book may leave readers more cautious than ever about what information they themselves are uploading to the
As older siblings, friends, and cousins were denied position at school and in the work force, we realized that adults and employers had found Facebook. Our uncensored character was on display for future bosses, colleges, etc. and they were there to stay. Instead of references being the test of character for a job, it was the online identity that determined whether or not the application got even a second glance. In light of this revelation, we changed. Our Facebooks no longer reflected our true selves, but rather the person that we thought colleges and employers should see. Much like hiding our dirty laundry from prying eyes in the halls of high school, we could no longer wear our proverbial hearts on our internet sleeves, for the future was at stake. Much like what had once been the Old West, the internet was now connected with railroads—each leading back to the offline person. Tame and orderly.
The human need for affiliation creates the challenges and rewards of finding acquaintances, forming close friendships, as well as intimate relationships. Through technological advances cyberspace, or the internet, has become a place of multiple opportunities for people to be able to fulfill that need for affiliation. Websites, chat rooms, and online communities are just some examples of virtual platforms for people to seek others, come together, and find that special someone. These opportunities can result in positive outcomes allowing people to achieve what or whom they were seeking, but they can also result in harm to themselves and others, resulting with damaging consequences. Cyberspace does not come with a warning label. People who use the internet as a means to seek relationships are at risk of being exposed to positive as well as negative results. Being made aware of some of those risks and dangers, and realizing that forming relationships on the internet is not all fun and games, may be ways to help promote a positive future for cyberspace as a place to form successful relationships.
The question relates to Anonymity, this is when a person is unknown and unacknowledged, so others cannot know their identity. In the old law in the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976 it stated that a victim and defendant of an alleged sexual offence were both granted anonymity. So, with regarding to the media it destined that the victims and defendants of rape and other sexual offences could not be identified or published in the media, including photos or any other details that could lead to their identification. However, the anonymity protection for defendants was removed by the Criminal Justice Act 1988 S.158(5) and remains the same today, with much debate due to unfairness seen as victims still hold their lifelong anonymity protection.