Online Identity

Title: I, Recreated.

“One’s identity emerges from whom one knows, one’s associations and connections.”

Sherry Turkle

(Turkle, 1995, p.1)

“Thank goodness there’s Facebook or I’ll die in school”. This is a group on Facebook, a social

networking site (SNS) where people come together to exchange information and interact with

one another. It shows how much the society has shifted from the traditional physical interaction

to online interaction. Social networking sites have increasingly become an integral part of our

lives.

Young teenagers go through a stage in life in search for the right clothes, to behave in the right

manner, mix with the right friends or simply insist their beliefs are right. These are signs of

identity creation. Identity can be looked upon as the perceived self, created by the influence of

the environment such as family and friends, distinguishing a person from other entities.

Interactions with people shape our perceptions as we are exposed to different values and beliefs.

Individuals may choose to mix with a certain social group because this group is perceived as cool,

thus the perceived cool identity. These perceptions affect our choice of identity. However, the

becoming of SNSs gives rise to a previously unexplored form of interaction and it exposes users

to acquaintances beyond our physical reach.

The interactions made possible through the

emergence of social networking sites are crucial to the recreation process of online identity and

possibly, real-life identity.

The concept of online interaction and identity is interestingly discussed by Erika Pearson in her

essay “All the World Wide Web’s a stage: The performance of identity in online social networks”

(2009). She describes the theory of performance, illustrating how people engaging in online

exchanges express themselves using online systems and symbols to project a perceived identity.

These performances may or may not reflect the true identity of the performer....