Is the person inside the digital world a PERSONA that you have created;
or is it who you REALLY are?
Tinder is a popular dating application that allows users to “match” with each other based on their social profiles. Today, we have many Tinder users who create an online identity in order to attract other individuals. Dailymail UK (2016) has uploaded an article that has collated a few posts of Tinder profiles versus them in real life.
As shown in the image above, user @Cheezburger had bravely admitted the differences between her virtual identity and actual self.
In the article by Tina (2010), she has quoted “The structure and design of virtual worlds allows its users to freely explore many facets of their personalities in ways that are not easily available to them in real life” (Cabiria, 2008). By having a different personality may be a liberating way to relieve stress for individuals but there are consequences that come along with it.
With a vastly different online identity, the user has to undertake other mental efforts to undertake the responsibilities of maintaining it. These responsibilities may result in their drastic changes in personalities and emotions they display in the two different worlds. The stress can also come from being guilty of lying to another user they have met online. As a result, the maintenance of a different persona may be a burden for their mental health and caused them to experience a mental break down.
It is also highly dangerous for other online users with the existence of anonymous online users. Singapore may be known for its safety, however there are often articles about individuals getting tricked by online scams. For example, in Singapore, there is an increase of “credit-for-sex” cases where the scammers will contact the victims through social profiles or chats (Channel News Asia, 2016).
Therefore, by having multiple and different online identities poses a risk for both the creator and other online users.
Despite the dangers, if there is authenticity in the identity, it may help the individual in both their jobs and personal life. It is recommended to differentiate a corporate and private identities. An individual should show their professionalism both online and offline. Hence, an online identity for their corporate profiles are essential to get updates about the industry and broaden their networks. With a personal online identity will then provide a platform for them to relieve stress and stay connected with their friends!
In conclusion, it is important for online identities to maintain their authenticity and also ensure their accounts are well-secured to prevent any possibilities of theft.
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References (for images and articles)
Slane, C. (2016). Privacy Cartoon Catalogue: 2. [Online] Available at: http://www.slane.co.nz/privacy_cartoons.html [Accessed on 7 November 2016]
Aimee, B. (2016). Tinder vs Reality: Singletons take to social media to share photos revealing what they usually look like compared to their glamorous dating profile pictures. [Online] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3414480/Tinder-vs-reality-Singletons-social-media-share-photos-revealing-usually-look-like-compared-glamorous-dating-profile-pictures.html [Accessed on 7 November 2016]
Tina, I. (2010). Exploring Identity in the Virtual World – Is that REALLY you?. [Online] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/curious-media/201004/exploring-identity-in-the-virtual-world-is-really-you [Accessed on 7 November 2016]
Alwyn, H. and Lolita, L. (2016). Online Scams: Singaporeans easy targets, says one scammer. [Online] Available at: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/online-scams-singaporeans/2415106.html [Accessed on 7 November 2016]
Safervpn. (2016). Stop Identity Theft with these 6 quick tips. [Online] Available at: https://www.safervpn.com/blog/prevent-online-identity-theft/ [Accessed on 7 November 2016]
#MANG2049 
Hi XinHui (:
After reading your blog post, it alarmed me that there is an increase in credit for sex cases in Singapore. It is relieving to know that this issue is brought up so as to set as a precaution for web users.
By using Tinder, an app that most of us are familiar with, it rings a bell to us. It is relatable and explicitly demonstrate some dangers of having multiple online identities. The issue of having false identity could bring about danger to innocent parties and should be carefully dealt with. Known of false identities on tinder, would you still use such app?
Anyways, nice post!! I enjoyed reading it! GOODJOB XINHUI 😀
-YangTing!!
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Hi Yangting,
Thanks for the comment!
Nope, personally I have never downloaded it before and doubt I ever will haha
Heard too many bad experiences from my friends about the individual being different and all hahah
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Hi XinHui! Thanks for the post! I found it particularly interesting that you have talked about the mental aspect of having multiple personalities. It definitely can be stressful managing multiple accounts especially if it is a vastly different persona. Tinder is also a good example that you have used. It is very popular in Singapore but users have to be careful as there have been many reports of identity fraud using such apps.
I also agree with you that is is good practice to have a corporate and personal identity. Professionalism is a excellent point and it is paramount to have a profile that is acceptable to the employers. Maybe I should consider getting a corporate identity as well! However, do you think that having two identities may ‘backfire’ with employers? Especially with trust issues arising.
Well done XinHui! SUPERB.
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Hello Sean!
Really, you are getting a corporate profile? Don’t forget to let me know about it when you have it!
I doubt that having two identities will ‘backfire’ with the employers as I believe they will appreciate if the employee has a corporate profile. This helps the employee to maintain the professionalism even with their clients. Hence, this will actually help the company to remain their good image.
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Hi Xin Hui! 🙂 Interesting read regarding the effects of having multiple online identities on one’s mental health. I agree with what you said about the effort of maintaining many vastly different online identities can take a toll on one’s mental health. However, might I add that it might also affect their physical health. With many accounts to manage, one could spend too much time perfecting these personas and neglect their personal health like improper diet and spending too much time on their digital devices.
Also, you mentioned in your post, the pros for having more than one identity is to create a work-life balance hence, my question to you is that, do you think it is possible to separate professional and personal life on the web without having more than one online identity?
Cheers,
Valerie
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Hi Valerie :))),
Good point well made! With multiple identities will certainly affect their health mentally and physically. As you mentioned, spending too much time on their social profiles will take a toll on their bodies which may lead to undesirable consequences.
Personally, I feel that it is very hard to maintain one social profile for both corporate and personal use. When we post a photo of an activity in our leisure time may be indirectly damaging or reflecting negatively on our professionalism. Everyone holds a different perspectives, hence we may not know if something that is fine to us, is actually insulting to another, especially if the individual is a client of ours.Therefore, by separating the profiles allow us to have lesser restrictions and easier maintenance of each profiles.
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Hello Xinhui,
It is interesting that you highlighted the issue of mental health into your post. After some searching efforts, I found a documentation online in regards to cyber dissociative identity disorder. (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00115-005-1893-x) However, the clinical picture documented the patient in extremity; young woman, unemployed, 12 hours a day on internet and time spent only on gaming.
It is probable that individuals may be affected, but I find it unlikely through having several identities on various social platforms. As long as an individual does not start to dissociate his/herself from reality, I actually think it is rather healthy to take on several personas to live out your inner-self. Social norms have led us to conform, to break the norm is to commit social “heresy”. Sure enough it is not a panacea to the problem, but it is a start to allow individuals to be more comfortable with themselves; don’t you think so?
Thank you for your post!
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Hi Norman,
Thanks for sharing the interesting article with me.
Yes I agree with your point that it is actually healthy to maintain multiple identities, as long as the individual draws a clear line between the virtuality and reality.
Through the various identities, it allows individuals to fully express themselves and provide a platform for them to unwind and relieve stress.
However, if an individual gets too comfortable and deep into their virtual character, it may be difficult for them to withdraw and goes back to being their real self (like the girl in the article).
But of course, incidents like those are rare. So, it is still safe for people to hold multiple identities.
Thanks for the refreshing opinion! 🙂
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Hello!!
Tinder as example is interesting and applicable to our daily life, especially that many are using “Happn” and “Tinder” to expand social circle. This is certainly a good illustration on the difference between the different “you” on the internet, where it fulfilled “having two identities for yourself is an example of lack of integrity” by Mark Zuckerberg (source: http://www.michaelzimmer.org/2010/05/14/facebooks-zuckerberg-having-two-identities-for-yourself-is-an-example-of-a-lack-of-integrity/)
Furthermore, I agree that online identity should maintain their authenticity as it allows employer to understand individual’s private life and personality. Nonetheless, this question us that “what rights do they have to examine our private life?”
On the contrary, I think that for one to show their professionalism both online and offline is extremely hard to achieve. Everybody have their freedom to choose who they want to be or what they want to do, thus it is difficult to avoid having multiple online identities to properly mark a line between work and private life especially when private life includes handling different groups in distinctive approaches.
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Hi Rebecca 🙂
Thanks for the compliments. I’m glad that my illustration has managed to be of help!
Yes I agree to the quote that you highlighted. By having more than one identity has certainly displayed the act of dishonesty and may hurt the innocent parties.
And yes, it is difficult to draw the line properly between both work and personal life. However, it may be vital to one’s career. A solution may be that they can include their colleagues into their personal life and only clients is for the corporate profile. This way they are able to connect with their colleagues both on and offline, and also still have a professional image infront of their clients.
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Hey Xinhui,
Interesting post you have got there. Thanks for highlighting “With a vastly different online identity, the user has to undertake other mental efforts to undertake the responsibilities of maintaining it.” – it made me reflect on my online behaviour. For instance, when I update both my Snapchat and Instagram stories, the context of the posts are different, I tend to show the “back-end scenes” on Snapchat and “front-end” on Instagram stories. I start to doubt myself and ask “why am I even doing this?”
I agree having multiple identities pose as a threat to both creators and other online users. The issue of using false identities to deceive people emotionally is unacceptable. I would say prevention is better than cure, perhaps we could advocate online users to develop social awareness to to prevent themselves from falling into traps. What are your thoughts on this?
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Hi Xinlin,
Thanks for sharing with me! I remember my friend told me that she has similar experience as you, which she post the ‘front-end’ scenes on Instagram stories and the back-end on snapchat. She shared with me that this could possibly arise as instagram has a lot of followers that may be just acquaintances or even strangers, which led her to unable to share freely.
On the other hand, snapchat’s followers are friends whom we are more comfortable with.
Hence, this may also be the cause for you?
Yes, I agree that there is a need for user to have social awareness to prevent such incidents. For example, Singapore has been showing TV commercials to raise awareness about the various online scams.
This is actually a good measure for citizens to be alert.
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