Online Identity

Introduction
When the World Wide Web was invented in 1990, no one could have imagined that

almost 4.54 billion people around the world would become active internet users (Richter). The

internet has evolved from being a search medium to a share medium, and a way to connect

billions of people. It is an important means of communication and information sharing among

young people. People connect and share information online through various forms of social

media: Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In fact, Diagram 1 shows that

monthly active social media users are in the billions (Richter). Much of what people share

online is personal information, and that personal information is what creates a person’s online

identity. To be authentic online, everything about your online identity should be reflective of

your offline identity, including background, experience, and personality. However, online

identities are often driven by competition, achievement, and status (Green). Evidence

demonstrates that society’s high standards have made it difficult for people to create and

maintain an authentic online identity.

Diagram 1
Authentic Online Identity
Everyone has multiple identities. People have a public identity, a private identity, a work

identity and various other identities. All of these together make up their authentic identity and

describe who they are. This is shown in Diagram 2. As a result of societal pressures, the identity

people reveal at any given time depends on where they are and who they are with. Similarly,

what people post online is about controlling what parts of their identity are relevant to share in

a specific situation (Vronay). This begs the question whether an online identity is truly authentic

if parts of it are omitted. Some argue that “although a digital identity is fragmented, various

online personas will lead back to the same personality” (Chamorro-Premuzic). This suggests

that even though people only show parts of their identity online, all the parts together will

ultimately expose an authentic online identity. However, others insist that to be authentic,

everything about an online identity should be reflective of everything in an offline identity. It is

not authentic for “one person to create multiple accounts on different sites, or even the same

site, each of which reflect a different aspect or facet of their identity” (Ellison 10). Ellison also

suggests that online identities are strategic self-representations and involve selective self-

presentation (13). Ultimately, people do want to project their best self for their audience. This

selective self-presentation, which results from societal pressure, prevents people from creating

and maintaining an authentic online identity.

Contributions to Online Identity

audience, it is hard to control what other people post. Friends and family regularly contribute

to an online identity and often do so without consent. By 2015, people were sharing thirty

million images an hour online and British parents posted, on average, nearly two hundred

photographs of their child each year (Renner). The internet holds evidence of the past and can

prevent people from remaking themselves in the future. Although the past is part of a person’s

identity, it reflects who someone was and not necessarily who they are now. Psychologist, Anna

Akbari, reminds people that identity is an “all-the-time, rest-of-your-life process of becoming.

Negotiating that intersection can be confusing, and there will probably be missteps” (Akbari).

Not only do posts from others reveal a previous identity that can potentially hurt the present

and future identity, these contributions are also the parts of a person’s identity which others

choose to remember, whether it is authentic or not. Society’s pressure and the desire to only

show parts of a person’s identity, have made it difficult for people to create and maintain an

authentic online identity.

Social Media Identity

images are posted on Snapchat every hour, and the average user opens the app’s camera

twenty times per day (Mohsin). People believe they can tell a lot about who a person is by what

they post on social media: how many followers they have, who they follow, and what their

biography says. However, is the online identity people create an authentic one? According to

Ginni Saraswati:

We all know that the image people portray of themselves on social media is highly
selective and curated. People often post only the information that paints them in a
positive light and makes them seem as interesting as possible. As a result, their social
media lives don’t always reflect their full reality. There’s also an emphasis on whatever
is most eye-catching and can generate strong feelings. For its part, real life is full of
positive, negative, and neutral.

Saraswati emphasizes that an online identity is not an authentic identity, and this is reiterated

by Australian model, Essena O’Neill. In an interview, O’Neill agrees “Social media, especially

how I used it, isn’t real. It’s contrived images and edited clips ranked against each other. It’s a

system based on social approval, likes, validation, in views, success in followers. It’s perfectly
orchestrated self-absorbed judgment” (Ke-Leigh). Society drives what people choose to include

and exclude from their online identity and this results in an identity that is partial and not

authentic.

Conclusion

The Internet and social media generate controversial discussions about online identity.

As suggested by Chamorro-Premuzic, “Although we are more than the history of our browser, it

is feasible that our web searches and web page visits, emails and social network activity contain

traces of our personality. In addition, we can say that our media preferences and what we

purchase online also point out elements of our personality. We can say that we have as many

personalities as the number of situations we are in”. However, an online identity is not an

accurate, complete, and authentic representation of reality. Societal pressures influence people

to create and maintain elaborate online identities that make life seem more perfect than it

really is. Instead of reflecting an offline background, personality, and experience “Everyone’s

social media persona is now like a candidate running for office—holding babies, doing photo

ops...Facebook should be called TwoFacedbook” (Akbari). After examining the meaning of an

authentic online identity, contributions to the online identity, pressures from society and social

media’s influence on online identity, it is evident that the Internet and social media have made

it difficult for people to create and maintain an authentic online identity.

Works Cited
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Sept. 2018. Web. 14 Apr. 2020.
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