Anonymity, Avatars and Idenity

As learned in our previous section, what goes online can be seen by many. However, what if no one knows who contributed to what online. That is where anonymity comes into effect. What is contributed online by a user can still be seen by many, but it is not blatantly stated who's the contributor. Many online users lie about their identity by pretending to be someone they are not or simply choosing not to share their identity. Many believe that by doing so, these users have something to hide. Others believe that these users are having every right to not make it known who they truly are.

Hidden Online


There are many ways to remain anonymous or hidden online. One site that can help with this is Tor Project. Tor project was at first deployed as a project for the U.S. Navy. With it's sole purpose in mind being to protect government communications. Today though it is used by anyone who wants to be anonymous or make goood use of its protection. You may use Tor to keep websites from tracking you. Another example of people that use Tor are journalists. Many journalists use Tor to communicate completely privately with the likes of whistleblowers and such. Now Tor can not make you completely anonymous online but it will protect all your transporting of data across the web. This is a great start for anyone wanting to become anonymous online.

Making of an Avator


Avatars are used almost simultaneously with social networking and video games. Computer and arcade games are used with the avatars more than anything. They are characters that can be created and sometimes can look like the human creating them. In these virtual worlds people can use their avatars to interact with eachother1.A very big place in which these are used is in a virtual environment called IMVU. To see more on IMVU just click this link:IMVU Homepage. Now this site allows you to fully customize this avatar and let you interact with avatars other users have created. To find more in depth avatar information visit this link:Method and apparatus for creating and customizing avatars using genetic paradigm.

Online Identity Crisis


Online users on every social media site have free will to use their real name or an alias. However, it is stated in the policies of Google+ and Facebook for its users to use their actual real name. This has come as a shock to most people in the summer of 2011, when Google+ allegedly deleted the accounts of its users who were not using real names. The use of these real versus fake names has become an online identity crisis. Many social media site users do not use their real names. Sometimes they use aliases like "Real Girl Kim" or actual names, which just aren't their given name like "John Smith". It has disrupted the vision of social networking for social media CEO's everywhere.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook has stated that, Facebook users should get used to using their real names and "having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity". Zuckerberg makes a valid point, companies use of Facebook as an insight to the lives of their prospective employees is increasing. Facebook users should rethink the name used for their profiles with the knowledge that employers are seeking to employee trustworthy candidates. With this in mind, the use of an alias could possibly lack the user’s integrity as seen by the employer. Although, some may argue that it is important for people to have the ability to express themselves online, including their personal profiles. Of course, it can be argued that fake names can lead to an actual identity crisis if a user cannot separate the real world from the world online.